KUALA LUMPUR: Kota Belud member of parliament Datuk Rahman Dahlan said that Pakatan Rakyat has no future in Sabah because Sabahans can no longer accept Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
“As far as I can tell, PR has no future in Sabah. I don’t know why but Anwar had stepped on too many Sabahans’ toes, so much that the Sabahans just cannot accept him as their political figure anymore,” he said, adding that Pakatan needs to win over Sabah and Sarawak in order to reach Putrajaya.
He said this during his talk entitled ‘The Politics and Economy of East Malaysia’ for the Teh Tarik Session held here yesterday.
Rahman said that one of the things the opposition leader did which upset many people in Sabah was when he (Anwar) announced that he would never allow a non-Muslim to head Sabah PKR.
The MP also said that Sabah Umno had been monitoring Pakatan’s movements and they found out that there were hardly any activities from the opposition in Sabah, so the Barisan Nasional (BN) does not have to be worry about Pakatan in Sabah.
Recalling the Batu Sapi by-election, Rahman said Anwar made a mistake when he chose Ansari as a candidate as there were many other potential candidates who were more qualified and more popular with the people.
The first issue addressed by Rahman who was a guest speaker during Teh Tarik Session was the problem of poverty in Sabah despite being a state known for being rich in natural resources. He acknowledged that the state is still behind economically though there have been improvements in the quality of life just that it is at a slow pace.
“Despite Sabah being the poorest state in Malaysia, the fact that they (Sabahans) are living their life happily is better than to live in urban areas.
“A farmer with lower monthly income is happier that he lives in his own way in Sabah rather than spending money on an expensive cup of coffee in Kuala Lumpur,” he said, adding one’s happiness cannot be measured with money.
Rahman also pleaded for the federal government to take into account the problem of Filipino illegal immigrants that have been living in Sabah in large numbers.
According to him, the federal government has not been taking the matter of these illegal immigrants seriously despite it being a very serious problem in Sabah.
“Perhaps, it (federal government’s neglect) is for the reason that the problem is happening two and a half hours from you (West Malaysians) that you can easily brush off the urgency to look into the matter,” he said disappointedly.
Rahman also touched on many other issues concerning politics and Sabah during the question-and-answer session including education, corruption, freedom of speech, developments, the opposition and race politics.
When asked on the government’s plan to build a coal-fired power plant in Lahad Datu, Rahman said he fully supported the idea as it would resolve the problem of acute power shortage in Sabah.
“If it is up to me, I would go for it,” he said, adding that Sabah had been relying too much on gas and diesel fuels which are more costly as well as more harmful to the environment.
On education, he said that Sabah had been receiving a lot of financial aid from the federal government to build better schools.
“To have schools with water and electricity supplies is good enough for Sabahans,” he said, adding that most of the schools in Sabah now are already equipped with better facilities.
On freedom of expression in the internet, Rahman said the government is not stupid to block any internet activities but he acknowledged that the government thoroughly monitors what goes on in cyberspace.
“I will be under (moderator) Hishammuddin Rais’ team and fight the Internet blockage if that is what is going to happen to Malaysians’ right to surf the internet,” he said with a laugh.
On corruption, Rahman, who is the only MP who is a member of Special Parliamentary Committee on Corruption as well as Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), explained that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) is still new and needs time to function properly.
“MACC is just two years old, it needs more time,” he said.
Talking about BN, Rahman said that the quality that the ruling alliance has which other parties do not have is the coalition system.
“BN lasted this long because of the coalition system that we practise among Umno, MCA and MIC.”
He also called for Malaysians to support BN since the party focuses more on the needs of the people.
“That gives BN the upper hand to court voters.”
But he also warned that if the problem of corruption is not eradicated among BN politicians, BN will be doomed come 2013.
Rahman was the first guest speaker from BN to be featured in Teh Tarik Session organized by Malaysian Digest.
The sixth Teh Tarik Session also featured activist Hishamuddin Rais as the moderator.
Previous guest speakers included Khalid Samad (Shah Alam PAS MP), Nurul Izzah Anwar (Lembah Pantai PKR MP), Tian Chua (PKR vice president), Hishamuddin Rais and Zunar (political cartoonist).