Warisan: PBS panicking over exodus from party
PBS’ Maximus Ongkili is under tremendous pressure as many party grassroot leaders have deserted to Warisan, claims Warisan secretary-general Loretto Padua Jr.
“Max is actually under tremendous pressure and in a panicky mode when many of the PBS grassroot leaders all over the state have deserted the party and joined Warisan,” Warisan secretary-general Loretto Padua Jr said in a statement today.
Padua Jr rebutted Ongkili’s remark that voting for the opposition was a waste of time during his meet-the-people session at Kampung Garau in Matunggong on Monday.
He said Ongkili simply could not provide a better argument why Sabahans, particularly the Kadazandusun Murut community (KDM), had to continue supporting the Barisan Nasional (BN) and its component party PBS.
“How could he ask Sabahans to continue supporting BN/PBS when there exists a mass exodus of his own grassroot leaders to Warisan?
“He cannot explain to Sabahans why the exodus happened, so the only thing that he can say is that it is a waste of time voting for the opposition.
“But if we assemble all these former PBS grassroot leaders, who believed, sacrificed and worked tirelessly for BN/PBS for about 10 or 20 years, do you think that Maximus will have the guts to say to them, face-to-face, that it is a waste of time to vote for Warisan?
“Maximus and some of these grassroot leaders had been the opposition from 1990 to 1994 (when PBS was in the opposition) and for Maximus to make that remark is akin to him spitting at them.”
Loretto believed the exodus had shaken PBS and could potentially cause the collapse of its election machinery in some constituencies.
“These senior grassroot leaders, who believe a change of government in Sabah through Warisan is highly probable, know their areas very well and are in constant contact with the electorate. Thus, I believe Warisan will be able to capture a few PBS seats this coming election,” said Padua Jr.
He chided Ongkili for depending too much on the disbursement of funds for infrastructure to win votes.
“While it is a disgrace that BN/PBS opted not to bring development to opposition-held constituencies, there is nothing special about what they had done either by using taxpayers’ money for development purposes,” he said.
“After all, that is what a responsible government should do.
“So, I am deeply offended when Maximus told Sabahans, especially the KDM, that voting for the opposition in Matunggong had resulted in wasted opportunities for development and economic improvement for Sabahans, and this shows how evil BN is.”
He said BN continued to collect tax from Sabahans but intimidated them that there would be no development if they voted for Warisan.
“Maximus had just reaffirmed to us that BN is a vindictive coalition whose role is only to serve its Umno masters when he himself said Matunggong had been left out of development merely because the people exercised their right to vote.
“Perhaps Sabahans would now understand that the main reason for the mass exodus by PBS grassroot leaders to Warisan is PBS’ reduced role, from the protector of Sabah to the protector of Umno,” he said.
In his address to the villagers, Ongkili said the opposition could “take pictures of field problems and spin in social media but cannot solve problems such as land surveying, road improvement, electricity supply and many more.
“Voting for the opposition is a waste of time and opportunity. Some of the basic infrastructure such as sewerage and drainage require upgrading and it is being addressed by the government.
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“What is required is cooperation between the government and rakyat to solve problems faced by rural people in particular,” the Daily Express reported him as saying.