3,000 Warisan members in Batu Sapi quit to support independent
SANDAKAN: Over 3,000 Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) members from 60 Warisan branches in Batu Sapi here left the party to support independent candidate for N43 Sekong state seat, Datu Faisal Datu Bachtiyal, on Saturday night.
About 15 branch chiefs also quit the party, and one of them, Abdul Rahman Hanchus, said that it was because they have lost trust in the candidate chosen for that area, and he also felt that the current Warisan candidate had taken them for granted.
“After Warisan named its candidates, the leader that we had followed so loyally was not chosen to contest in the next election. The candidate who was chosen did not appreciate us. He did not have the fighting spirit to help the people. This had disappointed many of us, thus we choose to support Faisal.
“I choose to support Faisal also because we believe that he could really help the Rakyat. He is also ‘orangta' (our people of the same race, Bajau Suluk), and he is a known by the people of Sekong as a local successful businessman and has been helping a lot of people in Sekong. We believe in his plight, and believe that as a true local man who grew up here (Batu Sapi), he is always going to be around to help us,” he said.
Abdul said that he and his team had given their best support to Warisan and worked very hard to get support for Warisan in Sekong for the past two years.
Faisal when commenting on the decision made by Warisan members to leave the party and support him, said that they are not bound by the party, they do not live for the party, so they have the right to leave and choose who they want to support.
“I congratulate them for making the decision to support me. It is their right to choose who they want to support,” he added.
Faisal, 43, who is new in politics, will be contesting with the aeroplane logo against five other candidates including Sahar Abd Majid from PAS; Arifin Asgali from Parti Warisan Sabah; incumbent Datuk Samsudin Yahya from Umno; Abd Rashid Abd Rahman from STAR; and Alias Abdul Rahman Benjamin from Parti Kebangsaan Sabah (PKS).
He recently announced using his own money to allocate RM100,000 for the development project fund in Kampung Air here, whether he wins or loses.