Najib’s ‘a victim of demand and supply’

A former BN leader in Sabah claims that Najib Tun Razak is 'fearful of alienating his colleges' in BN.

PAPAR: A former senior vice-president of Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS), a BN component party, has charged Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak of being “a victim of the supply and demand” situation within the ruling coalition.

Baharudin Nayan who is now vice chairman of Sabah STAR and heads its Pantai Manis state constituency, claimed that Najib is “fearful of alienating his colleagues” and as such is “weak and ineffectual.”

He said the situation had come about after the BN lost its two-thirds majority in parliament in 2008 and has had to cave in to demands by his “unscrupulous colleagues in BN”.

“Najib (is) now beholden to his MPs … he has been extravagant in public spending, easily succumbing to demands by certain BN politicians and this has led to a record budget deficit this year and the country’s staggering debt to the tune of RM446 billion.

“Even federal minister Idris Jala has predicted that if Malaysia continues to acquire debt, the country may be a bankrupt nation by 2020,” Baharudin said in his speech at the launching of Pantai Manis STAR division in Kampung Limbahau Papar by state chairman Jeffrey Kitingan over the weekend.

He said Najib’s government has wrongly left more needy infrastructure projects behind and succumbed to “personal demand projects” like the RM430 million Bum-Bum bridge in Semporna linking the town to Bum-Bum island.

“Maybe a bridge is not yet that necessary for Bum-Bum. This RM430 million if spent on asphalting some of the rural roads, almost all kampung roads in Sabah would have been upgraded.

“Perhaps a good ferry service is more apt for Bum-Bum island. The federal government could have just spent RM20 million or RM30 million on a ferry and that’s it. But they have been lavish,” said the veteran leader who has been active in state politics since 1960’s.

Baharudin said that the Umno-led BN should not be allowed to continue ruling Malaysia to prevent it draining its coffers and accumulating problems derived from bad policies and wrong priorities of BN leaders.

Urging voters in the constituency to back Kitingan, he said the maverick politician was the only one who had been consistent and unselfish in his struggle to win federal recognition of Sabah’s state rights and autonomy to manage its own resources and aspirations.

“He is our best hope when most the other Sabah leaders now are like buffaloes led by their nose,” he said to enthusiastic applause from the crowd.

’170,000 members’

Kitingan in his address called on multi-ethnic Sabahans to unite under his STAR banner and vote for its leaders in the coming general election.

“There might be a possibility that both BN and Pakatan Rakyat will only be separated by six MP seats at the coming poll and here if we are united in our voice we could make a difference for our state and the people as they would need our support,” he said at the event which was followed by a Kaamatan (Harvest Festival) celebration.

Kitingan said he was encouraged by the increasing support by Sabahans to his party and revealed that so far STAR had established itself in almost all 25 divisions in Sabah.

“To date we already have 170,000 members only within four months of setting foot to Sabah and this speaks volume of people wanting a change” he said.

Also present at the event held at the house of veteran community leader Bernard Mojikon were Sabah STAR secretary Guandee Kohoi and consumer activist Patrick Sindu who heads STAR in Papar division.