Sabah ministers boost Najib’s ‘army’ in Sarawak

Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman and his men are in Sarawak to tell the voters the 'good deeds' the ruling BN has done.

KOTA KINABALU: Never in its history, since 1963 that is, has the entire Sabah cabinet camped out in Sarawak to help in their election campaign.

But this time around, they are all there trying to rescue beleaguered Chief Minister Taib Mahmud, who had been on the receiving end of all kinds of insults ahead of polling on Saturday.

Two days to go for polling and Sabah Chief Minister, Musa Aman, is still criss-crossing the vast neighbouring state campaigning for Taib and his men and women in the hotly contested 71 constituencies.

Sarawak is now earnestly being eyed by proxies of two peninsular giants, the Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat.

On the advise of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, Musa and several other Umno leaders are staying back in Sarawak making sure the ‘good deeds’ of the ruling BN is disseminated to the voters who will decide which party rules Sarawak after April 16.

A close aide of Musa, who did not want to be named, told FMT that BN is confident of retaining power in Sarawak.

“BN will win,” was all he said about the possible outcome Saturday.

But not without losing some seats, he said, admitting that in urban Chinese areas it is 50-50 chance for rivalling parties.

The Sabah entourage in Sarawak has despatched its leaders to different areas in Sarawak, with Musa campaigning in Malay and urban areas while his trusted deputy Joseph Pairin Kitingan in rural and Dayaks constituencies.

Money politics

Meanwhile observers in Sarawak said the dishing out of cash had begun.

“It is no secret about BN people giving out token cash to tuai rumah panjang and its dwellers. They have been doing this since nomination especially in very remote areas.

“The PM and DPM also had announced hundreds of millions ringgit worth of development projects in various parts of Sarawak.

“This would entice and sway many voters especially the simple-minded ones in rural areas but not the urbane voters,” an observer told FMT.

She also said that a single person who had received the most insults and brunts from the opposition onslaught was Taib while opposition de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim had been the subject of constant insults by BN campaigners who portrayed him as chameleon of sorts in this election.

Pairin, whose bitterness towards Anwar dates back to when he was instrumental in bringing down the PBS government, tried hard to portray Anwar as someone who cannot be trusted or believed.

“Look at what Anwar had promised to my younger brother Dr Jeffrey (who had since left PKR) in Sabah… Their promise to appoint Baru Bian as chief minister is just another lie and a political ploy…” he said in his many speeches.