KOTA KINABALU: Two police reports were lodged against Parti Warisan Sabah leaders here yesterday.
The first report was made by Datuk Seri Anifah Aman’s political secretary Datuk Jihek Basanu against Parti Warisan Sabah secretary general Loretto Padua Jr.
Jihek who was met by the media after lodging the report said it was about Loretto’s claim that Anifah had made some racial statements in his speech during a Chinese New Year gathering for the Chinese community from his constituency.
Jihek said he was at the gathering and took note that Loretto, in his police report about the contents of Anifah’s speech, had twisted what the Foreign Minister cum Kimanis member of parliament had actually said.
“As a Sabahan who is of Bajau ethnicity, I listened to Anifah’s speech and took note that there were no racial elements nor did it touch on any racial sentiments in Sabah.
“I also refute Loretto’s claim that Anifah had slandered Tun Sakaran Dandai by saying the latter was not loyal to Umno. Tun Sakaran is still loyal to Umno till today. Anifah’s speech was sincere and did not touch on racial sentiments.
“He mentioned that Sabah must be governed by true Sabahans. So I want the police to investigate Loretto’s statement which can threaten the peace and harmony of the people in Sabah,” Jihek said.
The second police report was made by veteran Umno member Abdul Jalil Abdul Ghani over a video of Parti Warisan Sabah vice president Datuk Peter Anthony speaking in Matunggong on February 14.
“When viewing the video which went viral on social media, I was shocked to note that it contained racial and religious elements,” he claimed and pointed out that since gaining independence in 1963, before the existence of Parti Warisan Sabah, there was never ill feelings among Sabahans.
“We never claimed that the Chief Minister was a Chinese or Bajau or Kadazan. With the 14th general election coming, we do not want ill feelings among the people after that. We want the harmony we have since 1963 to be maintained forever.
“We have racial harmony. We have religious harmony. We must ensure that this is maintained,” he said adding that Peter in his speech kept mentioning ‘the Chief Minister is Pakistan and his family members are Pakistans.”
“But he forgot that we are all Sabahans. We should not be addressing each other by our race,” Abdul Jalil said.
He also was of the opinion that Peter lacked general knowledge as the latter in his speech mentioned that Tan Sri Bernard Dompok was appointed Minister to the Vatican.
“This is incorrect as Dompok was appointed as Resident Ambassador to the Vatican,” said Abdul Jalil who expressed worry over the speech which also touched on religion.
“What Peter said in his speech made me worry about our harmony. Why the need to mention religion? No matter what political party we are in, we must not create racial and religious chaos in the state and country.
“I urge the police to investigate the contents of the video as it is inciting religious and racial hatred. That is the reason why I made a police report, to make sure that no political party in Sabah or anywhere in Malaysia is going to play with religious and racial sentiments as well as issues,” he said adding: “I am totally against hatred and disharmony.”
He also said Peter had mentioned about 577 units of PPRT houses that Parti Warisan Sabah president Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal had approved for Sabah when he was the Rural and Regional Development Minister.
Peter, he said claimed that the houses were for the KDMR community in Sabah but were cancelled because applicants did not follow procedures.
“What was he implying? Why must mention KDMR? He just wanted to incite anger among the KDMR community so that they feel that they have been neglected and prejudiced. That is not supposed to be so in politics,” Abdul Jalil stressed.