Infighting in Sabah BN hots up
By Michael Kaung, Free Malaysia Today
KOTA KINABALU: The infighting among Sabah Barisan Nasional (BN) component party members is unlikely to die down any time soon, now that a senior Sabah Umno leader has jumped into the fray.
The infighting was sparked by Umno Kalabakan’s call to oust the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from a state assembly seat it currently hold when the next general election is held .
LDP is a member of the Sabah BN coalition.
Umno Penampang division chief, John Ambrose Dumpangol, said it is up to the BN leadership to decide on Umno Kalabakan’s request to take Merotai state seat back from the LDP.
Dumpangol also took a swipe at the LDP leadership for rejecting the call by 191 Umno branches in Kalabakan. The branches had unanimously voted on June 11 to retake the Merotai seat.
He said LDP does not have the right or jurisdiction to reject the request but was silent on whether it was appropriate for Umno Kalabakan to air the dispute in the media.
His fall-back plan requires Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to step in and solve the thorny issue that arose when Kalabakan MP Ghapur Salleh demanded that LDP vacate the Merotai state seat.
Umno had held the seat up to the 2004 election when it was handed over to LDP under BN’s seat-sharing formula that the coalition’s component party members are required to adhere to in the so-called “BN spirit”.
“We should leave it to the prime minister, who is also the BN chairman, to make a decision on the matter,” Dumpangol said yesterday.
Total disrespect
LDP publicity officer Albert Kok had earlier caused further consternation among Umno Sabah members when he rejected outright Umno Kalabakan’s demand.
Kok contended that Ghapur’s call was a total disrespect to the BN struggle and power-sharing concept.
He disputed the claim that the Merotai seat was on loan to LDP from Umno, saying that Umno Sabah must recognise that the cornerstone of the coalition is its long-held agreement to distribute seats equally to all its component parties irrespective of voter make-up.
Kok accused Ghapur and the 191 Umno branches of attempting to set a dangerous precedent in the coalition in Sabah.
He said that if the demand was entertained, all Sabah BN component parties could simply disregard each other and do as they please, which would be against the interest of BN as a whole.
“If they can do it to Merotai, what is stopping them from doing the same in other areas?”
He said the State BN leadership’s failure to quash such demands reflected poorly on its control of the state.
Political grievances
However, Dumpangol sees nothing wrong with state BN leaders openly taking their political grievances to the media.
He also denied Kok’s allegation that the LDP had also been continuously victimised and bullied by other BN component parties.
According to him, it was LDP leaders who had breached the BN spirit of comradeship.
“LDP leaders not only publicly criticised and ridiculed the BN leadership and other BN component parties, but also told BN leaders to stop treating Sabah as a ‘fixed deposit’,” said Dumpangol.
