KUALA PENYU: Seat allocation for Barisan Nasional (BN) Sabah is settled and all that is left are the seats held by Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP).
United Pasokmomogun KadazanDusunMurut Organization (UPKO) president Tan Sri Bernard Dompok said BN component parties in Sabah had their seats allocated to them.
“UPKO has its seats, so do PBS, Umno and other BN component parties, so there is no more problem in seats allocation, only with those held by SAPP,” he said when closing the UPKO Beaufort division delegates convention here yesterday.
The Plantation Industries and Commodities minister said even though there had been a lot of requests from BN leaders for the SAPP seats, in the end it would still be up to the coalition’s leadership to decide (who gets the seats).
Speaking to reporters later, Dompok, who was asked to elaborate on the seat division, said to his understanding, the issues were settled.
“That is my understanding, we have been here in BN for a long time and we know the parameter of how BN works,” he said.
To the question if UPKO had requested for the SAPP held seats, the Penampang member of parliament replied: “Yes we have requested for the SAPP seats, we have asked to be
considered. I do not want to talk about it yet but I have submitted to the BN leadership and it’s only fair that the Prime Minister looks at it first.”
When pressed to confirm if UPKO was interested in the state or parliamentary seats held by SAPP, Dompok said it was one of the parliamentary seats because the party felt that they were a factor there.
In his speech earlier, Dompok told the delegates that the BN government was one that listened to the voices of the people and it made the effort to address the grouses.
“The federal government sees what is good for Sabah and that the grouses are addressed,” he said but reminded the delegates that not all requests could be fulfilled as there were some of the remedial measures still in progress.
Explaining this to reporters later, Dompok said: “You cannot hope to get 100 per cent because there are things which are still ongoing like the illegal immigrant situation — the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) is just starting, they have yet to do their work; once they have done their work then the government will sit down and say what are we going to do about this problem and all this.
“So you cannot get 100 per cent immediately, it is ongoing as there are things that are incremental,” Dompok said, adding: “What has been fulfilled by the government, we can be proud of.”
He added that among issues resolved by the government was the water supply problem in Kuala Penyu.
“The federal government has also built the Sitompok Bridge here and will also be building a dual carriageway from Kota Kinabalu to Beaufort. I have requested the federal government to build the dual carriageway to Brunei Darussalam as they are many tourists from Brunei visiting Sabah,” he said.
He also urged the people, including UPKO members, not to be influenced by what the opposition was saying because they have no new issues to fight for and they were just trying to confuse the people.
“There have been a lot of statements from the opposition as well as those who had left BN, but I feel that Sabahans are still with BN.
“Even the leaders, including those who aspire to be Sabah chief minister and deputy chief minister are not ‘new’ people,” he pointed out.
He was of the opinion that those who had left BN to join Pakatan Rakyat had yet to choose which party they wanted to join and this showed that they themselves were not confident in the opposition.
“Why not just join an opposition party, why the need to set up Pakatan Perubahan Rakyat (PPS) and Angkatan Perubahan Rakyat (APS),” he said and described the situation with the opposition as a duck on water where the on the surface the bird looked calm but underwater, it was paddling hard.
According to Dompok, BN was and would be victorious in Beaufort and Kuala Penyu because of the unity among its component party leaders and members in the constituencies.
“There is no reason for the opposition to say that BN will lose in these constituencies because we have done the maths and the results show that we will be victorious,” Dompok said.
On UPKO’s future in BN, Dompok stressed that while there would always be differences in opinions with the leadership, the latter understood that the opinions were sincere ones which were the aspirations of the rakyat.
“I have differences of opinions with the state and federal governments but we see that as a package that is more good than bad,” he said.
Meanwhile on the issue of the increase in oil royalty for Sabah, Dompok said UPKO had made its views known to the government even during the party’s congress.
“We have been going about it and I am quite frank that we want more and I am articulating for Sabah because we have a lot of things to do here like in terms of development and all that, we do deserve that. We have forwarded our party’s stand on this to the government,” he said.
When asked if UPKO was also asking for a 20 per cent increase, Dompok replied: “Well the party has asked for an increase, we’ll talk about how much once it is put on the table.