After defeat in Kimanis, Sabah govt to take another look at PSS

Chief Minister Shafie Apdal (centre), accompanied by Sabah Rural Development Minister Ewon Benedick (on Shafie’s left), being greeted by guests in Kota Belud today.

KOTA KINABALU: Chief Minister Shafie Apdal said he will take another look at the Sabah Temporary Pass (PSS), a day after his Warisan party lost to Barisan Nasional in the Kimanis parliamentary by-election.

“I will look at it in detail and will discuss this with the home ministry,” he told reporters during a Christmas and New Year open house, hosted by Rural Development Minister Ewon Benedick in Kota Belud today.

The PSS has been blamed for the defeat of Warisan, which fielded Karim Bujang in the Kimanis polls.

Karim lost by a 2,029-vote majority after garnering 10,677 votes against Barisan Nasional’s Mohamad Alamin, who obtained 12,706 votes yesterday.

BN and other local opposition parties had made the PSS their main weapon against the state government during the campaign period.

The PSS, scheduled to be implemented in June, is intended to replace three different identification papers held by migrants in Sabah.

Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail earlier today did not dismiss the possibility that the impending implementation of PSS was among the factors that led Warisan to lose in the Kimanis by-election.

In his speech earlier, Shafie, who is Warisan president, said the party accepted the results as it was a resolution by residents and voters in Kimanis.

“We must respect the people’s decision. But don’t worry, I have gone through a history of ups and downs in my life.”

In thanking Warisan supporters in Kimanis, especially those who voted for Karim, he promised to continue assisting residents there despite the defeat.

“It doesn’t mean that since we lost in Kimanis, we will leave the people here without help.

“We lost in Tambunan (in GE14) but I went back to give RM1 million to build churches there. In fact, I’ve given other allocations for the area,” Shafie said.

Later, he told reporters the people there need the government’s help and support. “We are still the government,” he said.

To a question on Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad saying Pakatan Harapan will hold a post-mortem over the Kimanis loss, Shafie said Warisan will also conduct its own soon.

“There are several factors, including the candidate, funding matters and many others that I found. We acknowledge these must be looked into.

“We must see where we can improve on our preparations (for GE15),” said the Semporna MP.

Mahathir told reporters in Alor Setar today that PH will carry out a post-mortem to identify the factors for Warisan’s defeat and also what the people of Sabah thought about the government.

“Yes, we will find out why we lost. The defeat was worse than previously (in the 14th general election). So we want to know why. What caused the people in Sabah to be disappointed with our administration?” - FMT