Shafie on why he refused to join Dr M’s PPBM

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Chief Minister Shafie Apdal has revealed how he helped Dr Mahathir Mohamad form PPBM yet made sure that the Malay-based party would not set foot in Sabah.

The Warisan president, who in 2015 was sacked from Najib Razak’s Cabinet alongside Muhyiddin Yassin, said he was also involved in drafting PPBM’s constitution, but eventually decided not to become a member.

He said during the early days of PPBM, he told Mahathir, Muhyiddin and former finance minister Daim Zainuddin that PPBM should not be launched in Sabah.

“(I told them) let Warisan form the government,” he said in an interview with TV3 last night.

Shafie said despite this, he still felt it was hard to ignore Pakatan Harapan (PH) parties which had already been present in Sabah.

But he maintained that Warisan should not be part of PH despite their electoral alliance in the May polls.

“The party has never joined PH, even until now, because I want the Sabahan people and their voices to be protected. That is a method to encourage and get support from the people,” said Shafie.

He said in the aftermath of his removal from the Barisan Nasional (BN) government, he decided to make Sabah his political base.

“I told Mahathir, I need to go home and serve in Sabah in order to contribute more effectively. That is why we created Warisan,” he said, adding that Sabah needed more attention as it lagged behind compared to other states.

“It looks nice in Kota Kinabalu but when we go into the villages or rural areas, some still do not have water supply. After 60 years of independence, there are still schools with insufficient teachers and hospitals short of specialists.” - FMT