KOTA KINABALU: Kalabakan member of parliament Datuk Abdul Ghapur Salleh stands by his statement that Gerakan should not contest in Sabah in the coming general election.
“I speak my mind and I told the truth when debating the Budget 2012 in Parliament on Oct 17,” Ghapur said yesterday amid calls by Gerakan for Barisan Nasional (BN) to censure him for purportedly “insulting” remarks in Parliament against Gerakan and its leadership.
Ghapur said that the Barisan leadership must understand that if the coalition wants to retain its solid support in Sabah, they should not consider fielding candidates in the state.
He said that Gerakan had been rejected by the Chinese in Peninsular Malaysia and was now trying to find its roots in Sabah.
Ghapur said that he was not going to change his stand on his views about Gerakan as he believed that it was the truth and based on his back from the Chinese community in Sabah.
Gerakan’s Simpang Renggam MP Liang Teck Meng has called for the Barisan to censure the veteran Umno leader over his remarks in Parliament about Gerakan’s move into Sabah.
Liang had said that he lodged a complaint against Ghapur with Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who is the Barisan whip.
Liang said that it might be his (Ghapur) personal opinion but it was creating animosity between Umno and Gerakan.
Ghapur had also claimed that Gerakan had RM300 for people to turn up at the official opening of the Gerakan office in Tawau.
Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman, who is the Sabah Umno chairman, said that Ghapur’s statement was his personal view and not that of the party.
Sabah Gerakan did not contest a single seat in the 2008 General Election in Sabah now have three assemblyman and two of them are cabinet ministers.
Two of its assemblyman Datuk Raymond Tan (Tanjung Papat) and Au Kam Wah (Elopura) moved into Sabah Gerakan four months after Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) left Barisan in Sept 2008.
The third assemblyman Datuk Peter Pang (Karamunting) joined Gerakan after he left Liberal Democratic Party which had been at loggerheads with Musa.
Both Tan and Pang were retained as cabinet ministers by Musa but lost the deputy chief minister positions following the move.