Warisan a Trojan Horse: DAP
Published on: Monday, October 03, 2022
By: Suria Abdullah
Poon, the Tanjong Papat Assemblyman, expressed disappointment and disgust over Shafie’s remarks when justifying his decision to go solo in the coming general election.
Kota Kinabalu: Sabah DAP Chairman Datuk Frankie Poon described fellow opposition Warisan as a Trojan Horse that is out to split votes in the coming elections for the benefit of Umno and Barisan Nasional.He said Sabah DAP has no interest in continuing meaningless fights with fellow Warisan and would focus, instead, on strengthening the Pakatan Harapan coalition.
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He said the people can judge for themselves what DAP and Pakatan are doing.
“We will continue to strengthen Pakatan and the united opposition front and also propose constructive alternatives and solutions to address the people’s livelihood concerns,” he said, describing Warisan President Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal’s recent statements as baseless and contradictory.
Poon, the Tanjong Papat Assemblyman, expressed disappointment and disgust over Shafie’s remarks when justifying his decision to go solo in the coming general election.
“It is shocking that he is stooping low to accuse former allies Sabah DAP and PKR that were sincere in helping and campaigning for him,” he said.
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“Shafie’s baseless allegations to gain cheap publicity is truly a pathetic attempt,” he said. “Shafie’s attempt to mislead the public shows how shameless and desperate he is.” On Shafie’s statement that DAP did not protect Sabah rights when they were in power, he asked how did Warisan manage to claim that they successfully regained 17 rights from the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) then?
He said the federal and state governments both comprised members of Warisan and Pakatan and so all achievements and failures were collective, not one party’s.
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He said the then Prime Minister was Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and as per understanding, all previous discussions revolving the rights and autonomy of Sabah were between Shafie himself with Mahathir.
“Why are DAP and Lim Guan Eng being blamed for this? Why is Shafie not lambasting Dr Mahathir for not protecting Sabah’s rights?” he asked.
Poon said DAP has been consistently advocating for a united Opposition front to go against Barisan and Perikatan Nasional in the coming elections.
“This is what the people wish to see and support. However, it is disappointing that Shafie is not only betraying former allies but also going to an extreme extent to attack DAP with slandering statements,” he said.
“Is this not beneficial to Barisan and Perikatan?” he asked.
Poon said Warisan is similar to Pejuang and GTA who are willing to go populist just to stay relevant.
He said Warisan is also extremely similar to PAS now, playing the “semua salah DAP” card to gain political mileage.
He said in 2020, DAP Sabah did not gain any additional seats to contest despite there were additional 13 seats in Sabah being established.
“Initially, we were promised one to two seats but later Shafie told us to sacrifice and pave way for Warisan. We compromised as we cherished the cooperation and the people wished to see a united opposition,” Poon said.
“How could he now blame us that we did not hand out one of our incumbent seats to him?” he asked.
Incoming United Progressive Kinabalu Organisation (Upko) President Datuk Ewon Benedick also defended former state cabinet colleagues.
“Shafie is being unfair to put the blame on Tawau MP Datuk Christina Liew and Luyang Assemblyman Phoong Jin Zhe.
“I am very sure that discussions among state DAP and PKR leaders to their national leaders have taken place.
“The late Datuk Stephen Wong being the then state DAP chief and state cabinet constantly and strongly pursued Sabah interests with DAP national leaders in the federal cabinet.
“I have witnessed Phoong and Kota Kinabalu MP Chan Foong Hin pursuing Sabah interests passionately,” he said.
“Shafie, being the CM, has the official platform to pursue Sabah’s rights and interests. He sat in the special committee on Sabah-Sarawak chaired by Tun Mahathir being the Prime Minister.
“He was with the Chief Minister and the National Finance Council had accompanied the State Governor in the Conference of Rulers and is also a member of parliament.
“Those were official avenues to pursue Sabah rights and interests. Anybody can question whether Sabah rights were really pursued in these avenues.
“To me, it is just being unfair to put a blame to cabinet members who have only party platforms but not on government official avenues,” he said referring to the Senallang Assemblyman.
Ewon added Warisan was also represented in the federal government with three ministers then.
“Personally, I knew they have done their part, but Shafie is just being unfair to Christina, Phoong and Chan,” says Ewon.
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