Both Shafie and Bumburing want to be CMs

KOTA KINABALU - It is an open secret that both Parti Cinta Sabah (PCS) president Datuk Wilfred Bumburing and Parti Warisan president Datuk Shafie Apdal are aiming to be the Chief Minister of Sabah, said SAPP President Datuk Yong Teck Lee.

"This is the key reason why PCS and Parti Warisan are not able match up with each other and with other parties," said Yong in a statement Monday.

"The PCS (Parti Cinta Sabah) pullout from Gabungan Sabah in April 2017 is a gift to Umno because it is the greatest fear of Umno if Sabah parties are united.

"Umno knows that, in Sabah, Malaya-based parties cannot defeat the Umno-led BN as shown in the last elections.

"This is because Malaya-based parties are a merely mirror image of Umno-BN. But if Sabah parties form a combined force, then Umno can be defeated in Sabah because the most powerful weapon of Sabahans is the battle cry for Sabah rights and autonomy.

"And if Umno is defeated in Sabah, then it loses its majority in Parliament. This is Umno's greatest fear.

And therefore Umno will try all its means to break up the unity of Sabah parties.

Yong said Bumburing will end up on the wrong side of history as the person who split Sabahans.

Yong said that in 2016, at the formative stage of Gabungan Sabah, which at that time had only three parties (PCS, Star and Sapp), it was PCS vice-president, Datuk Kalakau Untol who was tasked with talking with Shafie who had been sacked as a federal minister.

Kalakau informed us in Gabungan that Shafie's new party, yet to be formed, was confident of winning 16 Umno seats, mostly in the east coast of Sabah.

"For that 16 seats, Shafie wanted to be recognised as the incoming Chief Minister.

I told Kalakau that if Shafie can beat Umno in 16 seats, then the opposition can form the government and Shafie will be Chief Minister because his party would have the most number of seats among the four opposition parties.

"At about the same time, Bumburing informed us (in Gabungan) that Tan Sri Ibrahim Menudin told him that, if promises Shafie as Chief Minister, then "all problems with Gabungan can be overcome".

"But Bumburing was unwilling to let go of his claim to the Chief Minister post.

"At the time, Bumburing was also gunning to become the "Ketua Pembangkang" so that if the Pembangkang wins the elections, then the "Ketua Pembangkang" becomes the Ketua Menteri.

"But Bumburing was played out by one other assemblyman who falsely promised to support him as Ketua Pembangkang to drive a wedge in Gabungan Sabah," he said. - DE (23/1/2018)