Bersatu entry delayed?

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Lajim

KOTA KINABALU: Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia’s (Bersatu) entry to Sabah will not be happening anytime soon.

And Parti Harapan Rakyat Sabah (Harapan Rakyat) president Datuk Seri Lajim Ukin is of the opinion that Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) defeat in the Semenyih by-election on Saturday had something to do with it. 

Speaking to the media after officiating a forum organised by the Sabah Kidney Foundation here yesterday, Lajim said that Harapan Rakyat is still waiting for Bersatu’s leaders to make the announcement on when the party will be officially setting up its chapter in Sabah.

“We have not been informed although the hint dropped was that this will be happening after the Semenyih by-election but the result was not favourable to Pakatan Harapan (PH) .

“I am of the opinion that the announcement will be made at a later date because I believe that they will be conducting a post-mortem on PH’s defeat in Semenyih,” he said.

Lajim said this when asked about the latest development on Bersatu’s move to spread its wings to Sabah.

Lajim announced last month that Harapan Rakyat would be dissolved to enable its members to join Bersatu.

“We have unanimously decided that our party members in the region of 64,000, will join Bersatu en bloc and for this reason, we will hold an Extra Ordinary General Meeting (EGM) as soon as practicable to dissolve our party Harapan Rakyat.

“The delegates to the EGM will be the same delegates who attended our last Annual General Meeting (AGM) on 26 October 2018. We are willing to sacrifice our party because we know we can contribute better towards nation building and to develop Sabah, and to realise the people’s aspirations and rights through a bigger and governing national party like Bersatu,” he had said.

When asked yesterday on when the EGM will be held, Lajim said that the date had not been fixed but they were looking at somewhere in the middle of April.

Meanwhile the veteran Sabahan politician opined that several factors led to PH’s defeat in Semenyih, among them were the age of PH’s candidate, the way the coalition’s election machinery worked and the fact that PAS and Umno were working together this time round.

“In Semenyih, during the 14th general election, PAS and Umno were contesting against each other but this time they worked together so the unity was effective. I think the constituents felt that the candidate was too young to be fielded. During my visits to areas during the by-election, I noticed the PH election machinery is not very aggressive compared to Barisan Nasional (BN) who are well trained. The same goes to PAS, DAP and PKR but maybe because Bersatu is a new paery, so there is less exposure for its election machinery.

“This in my personal opinion which is a signal to the PH government to review its manifesto and actions in the past nine months,” he said.

Lajim pointed out that the reduction of the one off government financial aid to single youths in the country had caused the PH government to lose some support from the younger generation.

He pointed out that during BN’s reign, the financial aid to young single adults was RM450 per person but under the PH government it was reduced to RM100.

“The youths need money and they are thinking if the BN government, even with the RM1 trillion debt could do it, why not the PH government. The ban on smoking also has an effect. The implementation was too drastic and it not only effects the smokers but also the business sector.

“I can see many eateries and stalls along roadsides now quite empty because of the ban. While I agree with the ban but the decision was too drastic and this shows that it is as if the government wants an immediate implementation of that decision,” he lamented.

Lajim said that the PH government must also review its promise about the PTPTN and opined that the PH coalition must convince the rakyat that it can fulfill at least half of the manifesto promised during the 14th general election.