Shafie not driven by rights but grudges, claims Ainal
Published on: Thursday, April 12, 2018
Kota Kinabalu: An Umno leader claims Parti Warisan President Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal's political struggles since leaving Umno have nothing to do with Sabah but are motivated by personal grudges against the Prime Minister and Chief Minister. Datuk Ainal Fattah, who is the party's Kg Balimbang branch chief in Semporna, said it is, therefore, not right for the former Umno vice president to drag everyone into his private battle."We are doing our best to stop him from fooling the people of Sabah. I put it to him that what he is doing now is due to personal grudge against Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Chief Minister Tan Sri Musa Aman," he said in a statement.ADVERTISEMENT He said the people have been made to believe that he is a victim of a power play and that he had served them well, especially during his time as Rural and Regional Development Minister.In Ainal's view, the Semporna Member of Parliament failed in his duties both as a federal minister holding the rural portfolio and as elected representative."I won't repeat what had already been widely reported about the loss of billions of ringgit meant for rural development in Sabah during his time in office. "Enough for me to recall that he even fell from a wooden bridge in a water village of Kg Pulau Salakan, which should not have happened if bridge had been repaired.ADVERTISEMENT "It raised the question as to why the wooden bridge wasn't repaired despite him being their MP and as a federal minister in charge of rural development. We know from previous reports, questions also had been asked about the status of many projects implemented when he was the minister," he said.He said the question marks and allegations surrounding the billions of ringgit to bring development in rural areas in the state, which were allegedly misappropriated, only proved Shafie failed miserably.
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"When the issue led to his arrest by the MACC, the people in Semporna felt embarrassed. "They know that if he is charged in court and proven guilty, he could be sentenced to jail," said Ainal, a lawyer.He said Shafie had also preferred to be silent to questions surrounding a controversy involving Yayasan Sabah which was thankfully stopped by Chief Minister Tan Sri Musa Aman when he was Yayasan Sabah Director in 1996. "This, in turn, begs the question of trust."And it's still fresh in the minds of Semporna people when he spoke at a political gathering that he was more powerful than the Chief Minister as he claimed to have 20 billion ringgit in allocations under his ministry, compared to Musa who only had 3 billion. "I also challenged Shafie to answer my important question on illegal immigrants who flooded Semporna when he was the Deputy Minister of Defence," said Ainal.In addition, he said, people are still waiting for answers with regard to a photograph showing Shafie and members of the Kiram family, who were linked to the militant intrusion in Tanduo, Lahad Datu few years ago. ""All these questions will haunt Shafie if and when he defends the Semporna seat in the coming general election."Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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On Wednesday, Chief Minister Tan Sri Musa was reported to have said that Shafie was not candid about the reason he left Umno two years ago.He said Shafie had been eyeing the Sabah Chief Minister's post, but after being denied the top post, he joined forces with another Umno rebel, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, and set his sights on the Deputy Prime Minister's post, instead.