Caesar Mandela Malakun
KOTA KINABALU (Dec 15): Warisan president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal’s claim that the action of Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) leaders leaving Bersatu is destabilising Sabah’s politics is hypocritical since that was what his party had been doing since they lost the Sabah election in 2020.
Political secretary to the chief minister, Ceasar Mandela Malakun, said since day one of the GRS-BN government taking over administration from his ill-fated Warisan government, Shafie’s party had been plotting to topple the Sabah government, just like what they did to the Sabah BN government in 2018.
“Every now and again, they spread rumours that this assemblyman and that assemblyman are leaving the GRS-BN coalition to form a state government with Shafie as the chief minister. I suppose it was Warisan’s game to give hope to their Adun and keep them from leaving the party,” he said in a statement here on Thursday.
Malakun said he is not surprised at all that Warisan has now come up with another trick to destabilise the government, this time, by questioning the legitimacy of the chief minister and the Sabah government.
“They are well aware that their accusations or as Shafie termed it, ‘concern’, do not hold water. But they are willing to go to any length including destabilising the government just to come out on top,” he said.
Malakun said Shafie and his party have relentlessly attacked leaders of GRS and BN, both politically and personally, in order to turn the people against Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor.
“They beat their chests, proclaiming that they are the only authentically Sabah local party and they will fight for Sabah’s rights. Then they went and opened branches in Malaya, but never once mentioned Sabah’s rights while campaigning there.
“Warisan’s narratives have always been about misinformation and manipulating facts to benefit their party and their leaders. They do not care about the implications of their lies; they simply call it politics,” he said.
This is why, Malakun said that Sabahans should take with two pinches of salt the words coming out of Warisan leaders’ mouths.
“The words sound nice, but they are riddled with lies and half-truths, like poison apples,” he said.
In fact, Malakun said the GRS-BN government is as stable as it has always been and there is no question about the legitimacy of Hajiji as the chief minister.
“GRS is a party with 30 assemblymen plus six GRS-friendly assemblymen. Our partner Sabah BN has 17 assemblymen while Sabah PH seven assemblymen have thrown their support behind Hajiji.
“If Warisan is sincere about Sabah and Sabahans, they should play their roles as responsible opposition as best they can, rather than stooping to gutter politics,” he said.