Warisan’s support for Dr M a lost cause, says party

(FMT) – The Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) today said Warisan is pursuing a lost cause in trying to restore Dr Mahathir Mohamad as the prime minister.

Its secretary-general, Richard Yong We Kong, believed there were efforts to lure opposition representatives to join Warisan, although there was no point in them doing so.

Yong said Warisan vice-president Junz Wong, who is also the state agriculture and food industry minister, had suggested last week there could be opposition members joining his party instead of the other way round.

Wong had said this in response to a claim by Sabah Umno Youth chief Abdul Aziz Julkarnain that support for Chief Minister Shafie Apdal (picture) was waning following the absence of some two dozen assemblymen during a show of support for the Warisan president.

Yong said that with PKR president Anwar Ibrahim now leading Pakatan Harapan as the opposition leader, Warisan would be hard put to explain how Mahathir can muster a parliamentary majority.

“Or does Warisan expect Anwar to support Mahathir as prime minister again?” he asked.

Warisan had failed in two attempts to support Mahathir in the Dewan Rakyat this month – one involving Shafie’s bid to submit a motion of confidence in the former prime minister, and the other involving former law minister Liew Vui Keong’s failed motion of no-confidence against Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

Both proposals were rejected by the speaker.

Yong urged those in the state opposition to think carefully before supporting Warisan. Based on public feedback, he said, the ruling party “has lost its bearings”.

He claimed that the economy was in tatters and the morale of the public service at an all-time low.

“During the Covid-19 pandemic, the state government’s dismal crisis management has exposed the weaknesses in its leadership and total lack of teamwork in the administration,” he said.