PBS rebuts claim that KDM not supporting BN

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KOTA KINABALU: Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) information chief Datuk Johnny Mositun said the claim by Sabah Reform Movement (Angkatan Perubahan Sabah) president Datuk Seri Panglima Wilfred Bumburing that the KDM community would not support Barisan Nasional (BN) and that the 2008 political tsunami that hit Peninsular Malaysia had reached Sabah is sheer pre-election hype and unsubstantiated.

“He is saying that because he wants to create the impression that Barisan Nasional (BN) has lost the people’s support and undermine their confidence in the government. He is just repeating coffee-shop talk which is not substantiated by facts,” Mositun said.

Bumburing, who is Tuaran member of parliament and now heads the pro-opposition NGO, made the claim last Thursday at a DAP function in Labuan.

Mositun said with political parties like PBS, UPKO, PBRS intact and firmly supporting the BN government, along with a number of the state’s largest KDM-based NGOs, Bumburing’s claim that the KDM were anti-BN was nothing more than fanciful thinking of his own.

He said the claim that the ‘political tsunami’ of 2008 had reached Sabah was another lie made up by the opposition. He said the situation in 2008 was very different from the prevailing situation today.

He pointed out that the issues that led to a substantial erosion of support for BN in the 2008 general election did not have much impact on Sabah or Sarawak which remain staunchly pro-BN.

“It is no different today. The feud between Anwar Ibrahim and Umno has negligible effect on Sabah politics. Local issues will determine how the people will vote in the next general election,” he said.

Mositun said Sabah had seen much progress and development under the BN administration because of the cordial state-federal relations which made it unlikely that Sabahans would opt for a political tsunami like what had happened in Peninsular Malaysia in 2008.

“That is most unlikely. The scenario under the able and effective leadership of PM Najib Tun Razak and CM Musa Aman has provided us with stability and unprecedented economic development. Our complaints too are being listened to attentively. The RCI has been set up to address the issue of illegal immigrants, more Sabahans are being appointed as departmental heads, and Petronas has started establishing downstream the oil and gas sector industries here. I don’t see any reason for Sabahans to want a ‘political tsunami’ here in Sabah, as Bumburing claims,” Mositun said.