Najib: Don’t throw votes for self-absorbed politicians

Prime Minister Najib Razak greeting some of the leaders of the various ethnic groups at the event in Kota Kinabalu yesterday.

KOTA KINABALU: Prime Minister Najib Razak cautioned Sabahans about individuals who will appear during the election season and pit the people against each other in order to break their unity so they can win the election.

“These ‘creatures’ know, if the people are united, they will not win. If we are united, Sabah will continue to prosper in Malaysia.

“So, they will come and coax the people to hate each other and, in the end, they will get what they want, their personal ambitions and political power,” he said at the meet and greet session with Sabah cultural and ethnic associations last tonight.

He said these politicians do not have the aspiration to develop Sabah and to raise Malaysia to a higher level as they are only interested in power and positions for themselves.

The people, he said would lose out if they chose to listen to these politicians and do their bidding because they would realise how easily these politicians can change their minds and words.

“Today, they will say one thing, tomorrow another. When they were in power, they said something, but today they say something else. They are consistently inconsistent and they make U-turns so often that if they are given the mandate, there is no guarantee they will not make another U-turn.

“This is why, such people cannot be trusted. The people’s hopes rest only with BN. We have united the people which in turn enabled us to bring progress,” Najib said.

The Barisan Nasional chairman then reiterated his commitment to help Sabah develop so that its development level is on par with that of states in the peninsula.

“That is why in Budget 2018, I allocated billions of ringgit to the state including RM1 billion to repair dilapidated rural school buildings, more than RM20 million to do perimeter surveys for native customary rights (NCR) lands and other allocations for the native courts in both Sabah and Sarawak,” he said.

During the event, Najib also announced that the federal government will be handing out RM10,000 for each of the 67 ethnic groups that attended the event.

Earlier in his speech, Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman rebuked opposition parties whom he said were exploiting sensitive issues such as race and religion just to gain support.

“This is an irresponsible act. It is obvious that they used this issue because they have run out of issues to fight the government. But I think this is uncalled for especially because in Sabah, for so long, we have lived in peace even though we are diverse in race and ethnicity,” he said.

Musa said Sabah has always been the model of the 1Malaysia spirit and its diverse people, which now stands at more than 52 major ethnic groups and more than 250 sub-ethnic groups, have always enjoyed cordial relations with one another despite their differences.

“This is our strength in Sabah. We never had any problem.

“We have no choice but to live together because each ethnic group’s rights is protected by law,” he said. -FMT