Sabah loyal partner – Najib

TAWAU: Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said yesterday Sabah was more than a ‘fixed deposit’ of the Barisan Nasional, it was a loyal partner of the coalition.

The Prime Minister said that a fixed deposit could be liquidated but a loyal partner meant that Sabah would remain with the BN through thick and thin.

“Sabah is a loyal partner of the BN. Sabah will not stop supporting the BN through thick and thin,” he said when addressing about 10,000 people at a meet-the-people session here.

Also present at the event were Chief Minister Tan Sri Musa Aman, the BN electoral candidates for the Kalabakan and Tawau parliamentary seats Datuk Seri Abdul Ghapur Salleh and Datuk Mary Yap Kain Ching, respectively, and the BN candidates for the Sebatik, Merotai, Tanjong Batu, Apas, Balung and Sri Tanjong state seats.

Najib said that even in difficult times, Sabah under the leadership of Chief Minister Musa and the BN component party leaders had remained loyal to the BN except for a few state leaders who had strayed from the coalition.

“The Sabah BN under the leadership of Tan Sri Musa Aman and his colleagues feel that loyalty is a very important value. Loyalty to the leader,” he said.

Najib said the strayed leaders were only loyal to the leader at the Umno General Assembly and when their interests were not fulfilled, their loyalty to the leader also disappeared.

“However, some are loyal when they hold positions. They remain loyal so long as their personal ambitions are realised. Otherwise, it’s a different story. They are no longer loyal. They resort to attacks,” he said, apparently referring to the alleged desire of former Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal, now Parti Warisan Sabah president, to become the Sabah chief minister.

Relating that matter, Najib said that before the 13th general election, Shafie had met him and stated his desire to contest a state seat in Sabah.

However, he added, he told Shafie that he could not contest a Sabah state seat because it was sufficient that he held a senior minister’s post at the federal level, which was a good position.

He said he asked Shafie to continue to champion the villagers with rural development and not to go for the post of chief minister.

“He did not say much to me. He left the room. It looks like he waited for an opportunity to stab me in the back. If I had not picked Datuk Seri Shafie, he would not have become an Umno vice-president.

“Who would have supported him if I had not given my blessings? Datuk Musa made way for Datuk Seri Shafie. Surely, there cannot be two candidates from Sabah for vicepresident. When I supported Datuk Seri Shafie, he won the vice-presidency,” said Najib, who is also the Umno president.

Najib said that when he was appointing the federal Cabinet, he gave Shafie the Rural and Regional Development portfolio on the consideration that Sabah and Sarawak required huge allocations and a leadership from Sabah and Sarawak because the two states badly needed rural development. He said he felt that appointing a minister from Sabah or Sarawak would enable the individual to use that position and the huge allocations to improve the living conditions of the rural people in the two states.

“That was what I had in mind. I could have picked someone from the peninsula, I could have picked someone from Sarawak. But I appointed a Sabahan as the rural development minister because I wanted him to focus on rural development in Sabah and Sarawak and other areas in the peninsula,” he said.

However, he said, after getting the post, Shafie had other plans and wanted to be the chief minister of Sabah and the deputy prime minister of the country and no longer had the people’s interests in mind.

Najib said that Shafie was now travelling the length and breadth of Sabah on the premise of bringing about a change but he was doubtful because Sabah now was in a better position than before.

“We do not need him because we have others who can champion the rural people of Sabah, Sarawak and the peninsula. That’s why we will continue with our struggle because we have a well-organised agenda,” he said. - Bernama