SANDAKAN POLLS | Sabah Umno chairperson Bung Moktar Radin has made his first appearance on the Sandakan by-election campaign trail.
He gave a ceramah at Kampung Sim Sim last night, where he told a crowd of some 300 people that Sabah Umno would mobilise its supporters in Sandakan to vote for PBS candidate Linda Tsen on polling day.
“I want to explain. There are 14,000 Malay voters (in Sandakan) and 9,700 of them are Umno members who are voters in Sandakan,” Moktar (photo, above) said to the cheering crowd.
Many in the crowd appeared to be Umno members as well as those from PBS and other parties, such as Usno and Star, which are backing PBS in this by-election.
The crowd was very responsive to Moktar as he told them that the Pakatan Harapan government has broken many of its promises since coming into power.
Among others, he said, the prices of goods have continued to rise after the new government replaced GST with SST. He also said Pakatan Harapan did not keep its promise to lower petrol prices.
Moktar, who is the Kinabatangan MP, also accused Sabah DAP as being beholden to DAP in Peninsular Malaysia and urged DAP members and supporters in Sabah to vote for a local party, such as PBS.
When Tsen (photo, below) arrived at the ceramah, about midway through Moktar’s speech, the crowd began cheering wildly for her, chanting her name and eventually giving her a standing ovation. Someone in the crowd even shouted, “We love you, Linda.”
In his speech, Moktar also claimed that the Election Commission (EC) was biased against them and going easy on Pakatan Harapan.
Someone in the crowd pointed out an EC observer who was listening to the speech from behind the fence at the back of the ceramah area and Moktar began speaking to him directly.
“EC, please give us justice. Don’t be too one-sided,” he said to the EC observer who walked further away from the fence as the crowd began jeering at him.
Moktar ended his speech by rallying the crowd to cheer “Vote for Number Five” three times. Tsen is listed as the fifth candidate on the ballot paper for the polling day, May 11.
Speaking to reporters later, Moktar said he wanted to join the campaigning earlier but this was delayed as he was arrested by the MACC last week and charged in court in Kuala Lumpur.
Bung was slapped with three corruption charges totalling RM2.8 million at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court for receiving money in June 2015, in his capacity as Felcra non-executive chairperson.
Asked whether former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak would join the campaign, Bung gave a non-committal “maybe”.
Najib had joined in the campaigns for the last three by-elections since the Cameron Highlands battle, and his new online persona ‘Bossku’ has since gone viral. BN won the last three by-elections.
Najib himself has said he would come if the people of Sabah wanted him to join in the campaign.
Tsen is going up against DAP’s Vivian Wong and three other independents in the May 11 Sandakan by-election. -Mkini
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