Kota Kinabalu: Shafie thanked the Chinese community for helping Warisan Sabah to make a clean sweep of Chinese-majority seats previously held by Pakatan Harapan’s DAP.
“I would like to say thank you very much to the Chinese community. I really appreciate the Chinese voters and the value that they have, not because of money, but because they want leadership with integrity,” he said.
“I have been in politics for 36 years and, therefore, I need to thank the Chinese community who have given support to Warisan,” he said, adding the party also gained support in urban areas.
Shafie said Warisan’s 25-seat win was hard-earned, especially given what he described as opposition from federal and state government machinery.
“It was not easy. Imagine the machinery deployed by the federal and state government against our single party,” he said, noting that the party had previously been left with only 14 seats after defections.
The former Chief Minister also expressed dissatisfaction over what he claimed was “rampant money politics” in the state election.
“The use of money was very rampant, although it is clearly against the Elections Act,” he said, citing videos.
“At some of the areas there are handouts of RM200 or RM300. There are our people who are affected,” he said, claiming vote-buying affected results across the State.
He said he saw the amount of resources used during the campaign, including private jets landing in Sandakan and Tawau.
“I really appreciate what Sabahans have put in us as a single party, and also as a leadership.
“We will continue this struggle, our spirits will not die,” he said.
He assured supporters that the trust given to Warisan would not be wasted, and that the party would keep fighting for a clean government free from corruption, unfair treatment and misuse of power.
“The mandate, the votes that have been given to us, we will do our best to ensure that their desire not only to see leaders from this party, but also a clean government, free from corruption practices, discrimination and abuse of power. This is what we want for Sabah,” he said.
He promised that Warisan’s 25 elected representatives, including himself, would serve the people differently by speaking up in both the state assembly and Parliament.
“I will make sure that if any kind of things happening not in accordance with the desire of the people, and not in accordance with the law, then we in Warisan we will speak up. We will not be silent,” he said.
Shafie, who is also Semporna Member of Parliament, said he would push for proper sharing of federal money, including education and health budgets.
