Kota Belud: United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko) supremo Datuk Seri Madius Tangau said former president Tan Sri Bernard Dompok lost by 11,000 votes in Penampang to the PKR candidate in the last General Election because of the politics of hatred."But today their (PKR) election promises were never fulfilled such as abolishment of PTPTN loans, among others," he said. "Instead, the Penampang MP left PKR to join a pre-arranged party and told the PKR leadership that something new is moving in Sabah.
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"The question is, why didn't the MP stay on with his old party and proceed with the so-called "perjuangan." Madius, who is Tuaran MP cum Upko Tuaran chief, also said Sabah has the most number of political parties and could enter the Guinness Book of World of Records.
"It's time for us to stop spending time too much time on politicking. The next general election is crucial because the government had set a target for BN to win by a two-third majority. In order for this to be done "we need to focus on the actions of the opposition and for starters, BN leaders must not be confused by issues raised by the oppositions, said Madius, who is also Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation.
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"We have 24 hours in a day and there are those who except for the 12 hours in the night spending 12 days of day talking only about politicks."Is this necessary? We need to conduct soul searching and look within ourselves the direction that we want to go.
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"Why must we spend all our efforts on politicking?" he asked.He also explained to the grassroots that the BN had succeeded in eliminating corruption in the country's taxation system with the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).He said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak took a bold move to replace the original Sales and Services Tax (SST) that is susceptible to graft with GST.However, he said the opposition was only doing lip service when saying they want to abolish GST and reinstate SST."What does this mean? The opposition is supporting corruption by wanting to reinstate SST," he said."Dont let the opposition to continue hoodwinking the people," he said.He also took to task those who criticising Upko leaders, including him, for "losing their voice" in Parliament after being appointed to the government."We are now in the government so a shouting match in the Parliament is not the way," he said, adding his criticisers instead should ensure they give him their support."A loud voice will not necessarily solve problems but a voice will be heard if it has the support from all grassroots."Therefore dont accuse me of not having any voice when you are not supporting me," he said.Later, Madius received about 290 new membership application forms from Upko Kota Belud making its total member base to more than 7,000 to date.Also on hand was Upko Kota Belud Chief, Ewon Benedick.On Saturday, Upko Kudat in its convention at Kanibongan, Pitas received 500 new members, a majority of them were former opposition members.Four resolutions were unanimously passed by Upko Kudat, among them, for the revived Bengkoka state seats to be represented by a party from the pasokmomogun community.Upko Kudat chief Lightson Kohiya said the only party that bears the pasokmomogun's name among the 14 Barisan Nasional (BN) component was Upko.In his winding up speech, he said about 80 per cent of Bengkoka's constituents comprised voters from the pasokmomogun community.He expressed confidence that with the full support from other component parties in Kudat, Upko has a fair chance of winning Bengkoka for the BN in the next General Election.Closing Upko Kudat convention, Madius concurred with Lightson that Upko has a fair chance if given the opportunity in Bengkoka.Nonetheless, he said Upko Kudat has a task ahead and that is to increase its membership base by another 3,000 from the present 5,000 within two months time.All the Upko members must also be registered voters, he said.
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For the record Bengkoka has about 10,000 registered voters and once gazetted it would be one of three state seats in Kudat parliamentary constituency with the rest being Pitas and Bangi.The other resolutions passed were calling for Kanibongan to be elevated to a subdistrict status, improvement of infrastructures and land application.