Ketuas want winnable BN candidate for K Marudu
Published on: Sunday, April 22, 2018
Kota Kinabalu: Community leaders in Matunggong want the Barisan Nasional (BN) leadership to field a winnable candidate in the Kota Marudu parliamentary seat to ensure it will not fall into the hands of the opposition in the coming 14th General Election (GE14).Matunggong OKK Makinsos Nawai, representing 181 village chiefs, nine Ketua Anak Negeri and 17 Wakil Ketua Anak Negeri, said the BN leadership should let a winnable candidate from a component party contest the seat instead of sticking to the quota system."The BN candidate for Kota Marudu should be well-liked by the people. A wrong choice of candidate will result in defeat. Matunggong folks want a candidate who can look into the people's problems and bring development.
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"If the leadership insists on fielding someone who the voters are not comfortable with and confident, then don't blame anyone if he or she is rejected by the voters."Having the right candidate in Kota Marudu will also ensure the BN retains the seat with a bigger margin and wins the two state seats under it - Matunggong and Tandek," he said.The incumbent Kota Marudu MP is PBS Acting President Datuk Maximus Ongkili who won by 842 votes in the GE13, while PBS' Sarapin Magana lost Matunggong to PKR's Datuk Jelani Hamdan and PBS' Anita Baranting won in Tandek. OKK Makinsos said community leaders in Matunggong welcomed BN Chairman cum Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak's frequent reminder that the BN candidates must be winnable.
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"However, in Kota Marudu, we seem to have been caught in a situation where due to the seat quota policy, whether a party has a winnable candidate or not will still get to contest. "I and other community leaders fear that any rejection of the BN candidate in Kota Marudu will certainly affect the results of Matunggong and Tandek," he said.
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Recently, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi proposed that PBS "loans" the Matunggong seat to Umno to wrest back the seat lost to PKR in the previous election.However, PBS leaders were up in arms against the proposal, prompting Sabah BN Chairman cum Chief Minister Tan Sri Musa Aman to issue a statement saying PBS will get to contest Matunggong in the coming election.OKK Makinsos said his statement was issued for the betterment of BN."I and other community leaders have been mixing with the grassroots for the past few years and we know their sentiments."For PBS to accuse Umno of sabotage that caused the defeat of their candidate in Matunggong in the last election was uncalled for. BN lost there simply because the candidate was rejected by the people. If we still do not learn from that, then it is rather sad."We community leaders are the eyes and ears of the government and know the sentiments on the ground. So we hope the BN leadership will take seriously our stand that a winnable candidate be fielded in Kota Marudu," he said.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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