Cheers and dance at ceramah attended by Najib, Bung Moktar

 

SABAH POLLS | Many of them cheered while a few of them danced and swayed their bodies the moment former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak arrived at a ceramah in Pantai Dalit on the eighth day of the Sabah state polls campaign.

The combination of the BN's star campaigner, who is famously known as "Bossku", together with Sabah BN chief Bung Moktar Radin, attracted more than 400 supporters and voters.

This despite the Election Commission (EC) restriction on parties capping their ceramah crowds to only a maximum of 250.

Pantai Dalit, a newly created state seat with a 60 percent of Muslim bumiputera majority, is one of four seats in the BN stronghold of the Tuaran parliamentary constituency.

BN's Jasnih Daya is facing an eight-corner fight in the seat together with Warisan's Rakam Sijim.

Today's ceramah also witnessed dozens of high-spirited members of Warisan and LDP donning BN T-shirts. Such mass exoduses of party members has become a phenomenon in the ongoing the state polls as a sign to show individual parties' strength.

Rafael Idris, a man who claimed to be a Warisan cybertrooper, was present and proudly said he made the right choice by joining Umno.

"I am the former political secretary to a state education minister. I was Sepitang Warisan information chief," he said.

"I was the one who handled the cybertroop-ing job of Warisan [...] all the while we supported Warisan for its "Change" slogan, I want to apologise as it was a wrong move to change," he said, referring to the calls by Warisan to reject BN in 2018 general election.

Without elaboration, he also pledged to expose more lies by Warisan.

Rafael even addressed Bung (above) as a future Sabah state minister.

Bung, meanwhile, urged Sabahans to give Umno and BN a second chance as they had changed after examining their mistakes following the 2018 general election defeat.

In his speech, Najib portrayed how the support of the voters in Pantai Dalit could lead Gabungan Rakyat Sabah to victory with the new state government expidiating development in the state.

"I am here because I was told of the bright chance of winning the seat. The victory of our candidate could give us one seat and lead to the formation of a new (state) government.

"We need a new government as the incumbent one was full of lies," he said.

GRS would develop Sabah to a state that was on par with its counterparts in the peninsula, he added.

Najib also said how Sabah once achieved an eight percent economic growth during his tenure as prime minister but this fell to only 0.5 percent in 2019 after Warisan took over.

The people, he said, begun to miss BN thus leading to the victories by BN in seven by-elections.

However, Najib has his speech cut short due to the Muslim call to prayer.

In the first week of the campaign, Najib mainly focussed on Sabah's east coast only arriving on the west coast yesterday. - Mkini