The former Sabah Umno member, who abandoned the party in December last year, said the Umno spirit of inclusiveness of all races had ceased after it became part of the opposition.

“Our fear is that they are becoming more like PAS with religion as its basis to be in politics.

“In Sabah, this does not work. Here, we do not talk about race and religion. It might make political sense for Umno and PAS to work together in Peninsular Malaysia, but not here,” he said after launching the Kota Kinabalu PPBM division meeting here today.

Masidi, along with Hajiji Mohd Noor, as well as several Sabah Umno division chiefs, MPs and senators left Umno last year, citing they had lost confidence in Umno’s leadership.

Umno signed a pact with Islamist party PAS in September during the two-day Himpunan Penyatuan Ummah to gain the support of majority Malay voters in Peninsular Malaysia.

Masidi said he had a lot of relatives who are non-Muslims. “Anything that hurts them will also hurt me. We don’t want the family to become divided due to politics.”

‘PPBM in disarray at Tanjung Piai by-election’

Commenting on the results of the Nov 16 Tanjung Piai by-election, Masidi noted the PPBM election machinery was in disarray and the Sabah PPBM delegates who went there to assist in campaigning only met two local party representatives during their two-week stay there.

He noted this might be one of the factors that contributed to Pakatan Harapan’s loss in the by-election.

“But there’s always a lesson to learn from any defeat.

“During our time there, it was an open secret, admitted by party campaigners, that they were not totally ready for the by-election. The by-election came very suddenly.”

Masidi said the party had only lost a battle but not the whole war and had three years to set things right before the next general election.

Barisan Nasional wrested the Tanjung Piai seat from Pakatan Harapan with a huge majority of 15,086 votes.