Probe Umno leaders, not Tian Chua

Instead of attacking Tian Chua for his remarks about the Sulu invasion, Umno should look into its Lahad Datu branch which has been totally compromised.

INANAM: The State Reform Party (STAR) has lashed out at Sabah Umno for attempting to divert attention away from the self-inflicted security problem that has occurred in the state during its watch.

STAR Sabah deputy chairman Daniel John Jambun said the attempt by Sabah Umno leaders to focus on opposition leader Tian Chua of PKR and his comments about the on-going security crisis in the state was absurd and an attempt to defect criticism.

He said that the call to ban Tian Chua from ever entering Sabah rather than imposing one on Umno leaders particularly former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad, on whom the blame for the crisis can be placed, was the hight of hypocrisy.

“Mahathir and Umno leaders were in cahoots on “Projek IC” … to give out Malaysian documents to illegal immigrants in Sabah. They are the ones who should be barred,” Jambun said.

A series of police reports have made against Tian Chua for his earlier statement that the Lahad Datu incident was all of Umno’s doing.

Jambun said the hue and cry by Umno supporters lodging police reports and calling for Tian Chua to be barred from entering Sabah is a concerted effort by the ruling party to divert attention from allegations that a whole Umno branch in Lahad Datu had been compromised by the crisis.

Allegations have been made that several of those involved in the Kg Tanduo takeover by a band of Filipino mercenaries allied to the self-proclaimed Sultan of Sulu Jamalul Karim III are Umno members.

The brutal slaughter of eight Malaysian policemen by the mercenaries has left Umno leaders wringing their hands in distress.

Jambun, STAR chairman Jeffrey Kitingan’s outspoken deputy said, Umno leaders were squirming following the raid by the armed Filipino group especially after Chief Minister Musa Aman had time and again over the years assured that the east coast of the state is secure.

“Tian Chua’s unfavourable comment against Umno on the Sulu gunmen in Sabah would of course infuriate some Umno members, but look at the real issue at hand and who contributed to the whole problems linked to these illegal immigrants,” said Jambun in a statement here.

He said it was former premier Mahathir and his fellow Umno leaders, including current premier Najib Tun Razak, who put in place a scheme to grants Malaysian citizenship to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants from the Philippines.

Umno leaders involved?
He said even Sulu leader Jamalul Kiram admitted there were 800,000 of his people in Sabah given such documents by Mahathir and Umno-led federal government.

Tian Chua had merely commented on the sins and treasonous acts of these Umno leaders, Jambun pointed out.

“It was openly and repeatedly claimed by Sulu leaders and military reports in the Philippines how Mahathir and Malaysian government had helped train and fund the Sulu insurgents in southern Philippines.

“Now no one in Malaysia denied this except Mahathir himself who did so last week. But what can bona fide Sabahans expect from this man who was responsible for so many bad things that have happened to Malaysia and especially Sabah,” he stressed.

Jambun urged Malaysian to remember how Mahathir had mistreated the democratically elected state government under Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) back in 1980s and 1990s.

He also pointed to media reports stating that one Umno branch chairman in Lahad Datu was allegedly a pivotal figure behind the whole happening in Tanduo and that even the Sulu Sultan had attended Umno meetings before and shook hand with Umno leaders, including Najib recently.