Musa: Shafie was arrogant and not team player

Musa Aman (centre, front row) with leaders and delegates from PBS, PBRS and Upko during the parties’ election machinery convention in Kota Kinabalu.

KOTA KINABALU: Parti Warisan Sabah president Shafie Apdal was arrogant when he was a federal minister and was unable to cooperate with the state government, Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman said today.

“He never sat down with me to discuss how his federal ministry would channel allocations to meet Sabah’s needs,” he said when launching a convention held by PBS, PBRS and Upko here today to prepare their respective election machinery for the 14th general election.

Musa said Shafie was unlike Sabahan federal ministers Madius Tangau (Upko acting president), Joseph Kurup (PBRS president) and Max Ongkili (PBS deputy president), who always met him to discuss Sabah’s development.

“If he had been open and cooperative with us, I would have gone to Kuala Lumpur to discuss matters arising but this never happened. He was very arrogant.”

Shafie resigned as Umno vice-president after he was removed as rural and regional development minister in 2015 following his criticism of Prime Minister Najib Razak’s handling of the 1MDB issue.

Shafie, who is the Semporna MP, subsequently formed Warisan.

Musa, who is Sabah BN chairman, said many projects in the state had faced problems when Shafie was a minister.

“One district officer, for example, told me his area had lampposts but no power,” he said.

“I only knew about this after the district officer directly gave me this feedback.

“Definitely, Shafie must have known this but what did he do to rectify the problem?”

Musa, who is also Sungai Sibuga assemblyman, dismissed claims by Shafie and his party leaders that they had fought for Sabah’s rights.

“He claimed to be fighting for Sabah’s rights but it is these leaders in this room who are actually the fighters for the people’s rights,” he told the convention delegates.

“He’s actually a traitor to our party and our struggle and had disciplinary action taken against him for his conduct.”

Musa urged the BN component parties’ election machinery to work hard to dispel whatever lies propagated by the opposition.

“We must go to the ground and use social media to let the people see the truth.”

Warisan is working on an electoral deal with Pakatan Harapan to face the next general election but Shafie has stressed his party will not join the national opposition coalition.

BN has claimed Warisan is a proxy of Pakatan’s component PPBM, which is led by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad. -FMT