KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 7 — Sabah’s fragmented opposition front appears to have hit its biggest stumbling block yet with the Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) and Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) two new state allies now in a verbal warfare that could thwart their dream of capturing the state in Election 2013.
With SAPP chief Datuk Yong Teck Lee on one side, and ex-Barisan Nasional (BN) strongmen Datuk Seri Wilfred Mojilip Bumburing and Datuk Seri Lajim Ukin on the other, both factions have gone public with their bitter exchanges and name-calling, each accusing the other of political greed and an unwillingness to unite against BN.
Yong has accused his opposition rivals of political greed. — File pic
Yong has likened Bumburing and Lajim to buffaloes led around by their nose rings, claiming both men were jumping through hoops for their newfound PR friends in the peninsula to lobby for spots in the polls contest.
“They have no choice but to kowtow to Kuala Lumpur. They have to go to Kuala Lumpur to lobby to be candidates,” he said in a statement emailed yesterday to The Malaysian Insider.
The former Sabah chief minister also accused the men of showering exorbitant gifts of lobsters, tiger prawns and bird’s nest to PR’s leaders in the capital city “just to get chosen as candidates”.
He added that they were incapable of defending the 1963 Malaysia agreement and fighting for Sabah’s autonomy — a key struggle in the SAPP’s political campaign.
But not to be outdone, an angry APS information and communication director Lesaya Lopog Sorudim said Yong and SAPP were “politically short-sighted” and “deprived” of issues.
“Could anyone in their right frame of mind ever imagine Bumburing and Lajim disembarking from an airplane in KLIA (KL International Airport) armed with a bucket load of tiger prawns or lobster or even a bundle of bird’s nest under their armpit purportedly to be given to some leaders in Kuala Lumpur in order to be chosen as candidates?” he said in an email statement.
Sorudim also said that Yong’s remarks were tantamount to accusing Bumburing and Lakim of bribery, adding a reminder that both men had left cushy positions in BN to support the opposition’s struggle in Sabah.
Tuaran MP Bumburing was formerly the deputy president of BN’s United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (UPKO) while Beaufort MP Lajim was formerly an Umno branch, divisional and supreme council member.
“Let me also remind Yong Teck Lee that for several times in many of Bumburing’s speeches heard by several thousands of people, Bumburing had often said that if he could help put in place a new government to replace BN without having to be the candidate, he would be the happiest man on earth,” Sorudim wrote in the email.
They have no choice but to kowtow to Kuala Lumpur. They have to go to Kuala Lumpur to lobby to be candidates. — SAPP president Yong Teck Lee
He said that Yong had not only insulted both Bumburing and Lajim, but Sabahans in general, and largely those of the Kadazandusun and Murut (KDM), and Malay communities, whom he said look to the duo as their “flag-bearers”.
The Malaysian Insider understands that Bumburing has been tasked with handling the KDM seats in Sabah to ensure that the community’s support swings to the opposition, even though the peninsula-based PR is leading the fight. Lajim has been tasked to tackle the Malay voters.
The opposition front in Sabah is a crowded one and in the months leading up to the coming 13th general election all players have been scrambling for their share of the state’s 60 state seats up for grabs.
PR, the opposition pact that was formed in the peninsula after BN suffered significant losses in Election 2008, has set its sights on toppling the ruling pact from its Sabah bastion.
But Sabah residents are said to have grown more communal over the years, with opposition politicians in the Land below the Wind often blaring the “Sabah for Sabahans” war cry, fuelling the already deep-rooted anti-Malaya sentiment felt by locals there.
Like the SAPP, another party ― the State Reform Party (STAR), led by political maverick Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan — also believes that administrative power over the state must be retained with Sabahans.
Both PR and the SAPP have yet to make inroads in seat negotiations with Jeffrey, who insists on fielding his own candidates in the majority or all of the state’s 60 seats.
But with the SAPP adamant on contesting the lion’s share and PR unwilling to concede to this request, it appears that it will likely be a fractured opposition front that will face political giant BN for the Sabah contest in the coming polls.
The Malaysian Insider reported on Wednesday that seat talks between PR and the SAPP have come to temporary halt, according to Bumburing.
Yong did not dispute this when asked by The Malaysian Insider later, only saying that his party was waiting for PR to decide on its own seat-sharing formula among its three parties, Bumburing’s APS and Lajim’s PPPS.
But, with the SAPP already on a collision course with PR on seat negotiations for the polls, the party’s latest verbal warfare with Bumburing and Lajim could lead to a total deadlock and result in three or four-cornered fights during the polls contest.
Responding to this, Sorudim expressed surprise that Yong appeared to be training his guns on his opposition partners in Sabah instead of BN.
“Instead of attacking BN and Umno, SAPP surprisingly chose to attack fellow Sabahan opposition leaders.
“This only goes to prove that SAPP’s ultimate aim and objective is to gain political power for themselves.
“This also goes to show that they are no longer interested in any form of electoral understanding and pact with other opposition groupings in Sabah in the coming GE13,” he said.
There are also 25 federal seats in Sabah, often referred to as BN’s “fixed deposit” together with neighbouring Sarawak.
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