Upko Youth chief Arthur Sen quits party

However, he declined to reveal the reason behind his resignation.

Upko Youth chief Arthur Sen says he is not sure if he should reveal the reason for his decision. (Facebook pic)

KOTA KINABALU: Upko Youth chief Arthur Sen has quit the United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko) and relinquished all his party posts.

Sen, however, declined to reveal the reason behind his resignation.

“I am still in a dilemma as to whether to reveal why I decided to part ways with Upko… I will not say anything at the moment,” he said.

On his plans for the future, he said he had nothing concrete planned at the moment but would notify the media on his next step when the time comes.

Sen’s resignation letter, which was sent to Upko acting president Wilfred Madius Tangau, has been circulating in Whatsapp.

The letter said that apart from his post as the youth chief, Sen was also relinquishing his posts as the party’s Public Complaints Bureau chairman and Ranau division vice-chief.

Upko left the Barisan Nasional a day after the May 9 election, with Tangau announcing the party was forming a coalition government with Parti Warisan Sabah and Pakatan Harapan’s component parties, PKR and DAP, in Sabah.

Tangau’s announcement came at a critical point as BN and Warisan-PH each had 29 state seats, with the remaining two held by Parti Solidariti Tanah Airku (STAR).

Many slammed Upko, especially Tangau, for the move and labelled the party and its acting president as “frogs”.

With Upko jumping ship, it initially meant that Warisan-PH would have a total of 33 seats, including the five seats won by Upko under BN’s ticket in GE14, namely Paginatan, Kuamut, Nabawan, Kadamaian and Kuala Penyu.

However, the five Upko assemblymen who were at the chief minister’s Sri Gaya residence at the time were unaware Tangau had pledged the party’s allegiance to Warisan president Shafie Apdal.

They had instead pledged to support former Sabah BN chairman Musa Aman, who is also Sungai Sibuga assemblyman. This enabled Musa to form the state government with a simple majority of 31 seats on May 10 after STAR agreed to work with BN.

Two of Upko’s assemblymen were also named as ministers in Musa’s short-lived state Cabinet.

Less than 48 hours after Musa’s swearing in, Shafie was sworn in as the chief minister by Sabah governor Juhar Mahiruddin after the Semporna MP-cum-Senallang assemblymen secured a clear majority to form the government. -FMT