‘Bona fide’ Sabahans must vote

Don't be swayed by the 'RM100, RM500 or laptops' the Barisan Nasional leaders are giving you, Sabahans told.

KOTA KINABALU: The opposition has urged all “bona fide” Malaysians living in Sabah to “come out and vote early” in the coming general election to ensure a better future for their children.

PKR Kota Kinabalu chairperson Christina Liew said: “Forty-six years of a corrupt regime is far too long. Enough is enough, we need to change.”

“Even the Middle East had a change of regime. I think we are the last ones left in Southeast Asia. Look at the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia. Even Singapore is now feeling the impact,” she said at a press conference here today.

“This time all the bona fide Malaysians in Sabah must come out to vote early and vote in one voice. We must not be divided. Do not just look at the candidate only… you must look at our future.

“If you want to have a better future for your children, you have to vote according to your conscience, and not because someone gave you RM100, RM500 or just one laptop computer,” she said.

Liew cited the National Feedlot Corporation (NFC) controversy as an example of the greed and corruption that have become endemic in the country.

“The candidates may give you RM500 but after winning the election, they might find ways to pocket hundreds of millions of the rakyat’s money. Do you want such a government to continue?” she asked.

Indelible ink

Liew, meanwhile, expressed scepticism over the effectiveness of the proposed use of indelible ink in curbing election fraud in the coming general election.

She said that while a mark might prevent multiple vote being cast by a single voter, it would do nothing to prevent so-called phantom voters from casting their ballots much like in the past.

“Instead of one person voting five times, now five persons may be registered to vote. There has been a significant increase of registered voters in every state throughout Malaysia,” she said, adding that she recently discovered that some 1,500 regular voters in her constituency who had voted many times in the past, had been allegedly “displaced” and “replaced” with the same number of new voters.

Liew also touched on Sabah Progressive Party’s (SAPP) open support for Pakatan Rakyat leader Anwar Ibrahim as prime minister.

Describing SAPP’s support as a “positive and constructive” gesture, she also hoped that the newly-launched State Reform Party (STAR) under Jeffrey Kitingan will cooperate with Pakatan to ensure a “one-to-one” fight with BN in the election.