Warisan lost it

One would have expected a former Federal Minister and resigned Vice President of UMNO be on top of his game in a political campaign.

Unfortunately, Dato Shafie Apdal fell short of expectation. He lost his hold on matters close to the heart of the people of Sabah for decades.

President Dutarte announced a committee to review their Federal Constitution to include Sabah as the 13th state but no response was forthcoming from Shafie or his fellow party members.

Dato Anifah Aman challenged opposition leaders and even their bloggers to attend an event to debate the Malaysia Agreement 1963 but none turned up.

It is a disappointment of Sabah opposition, particularly the likes of Warisan whose been going about the state repeating a slogan similar an old PBS slogan of "Sabah for Sabahans".

It should be opportunity for them to seize on to show their Sabah political character and state their positions on Sabah sovereignty, and rights under MA 63.

Nothing doing

It was Foreign Minister, Sabahan Dato Anifah Aman who was swift and firm with a response.

Malaysia will not budge, he said. The Philipines claim was brushed aside as ignorance of history. Sabah is part of Malaysia and not belong to anyone else.

Warisan President or other officios did not mince a word, except Deputy President Darell Leiking. Taking from Borneo Post, he said:

“The Sabah BN leaders must come out with a concrete solution once and for all vis diplomatic channels or through the United Nations to send a clear message to Manila that it should stop this act of provocation and drop their unsubstantiated claim over our Sabah,” said Leiking who is also the member of parliament for Penampang.

“How can you expect Sabahans to believe the assurances that this federal government is protecting Sabah’s rights and interests through BN when the Sabah claim has been repeated time and time again by Manila?

“Their threat could be real and imminent as we already know through the RCI that their citizens have already inserted and assimilated themselves into our society.”

Darell's response is that of a political novice. By going into a dialogue or discussion, it is acknowledging Phillipines' claim!

Darell touched on the issue of RCI as an example to cast doubt on BN sincerity and ability. It came out as shooting himself on the foot.

Does Darell not know that the Project IC issue is the handy work of Tun Dr Mahathir's administration to cheat in a state election?

Unless he just returned from Mars, thus not in the know, Mahathir is with Warisan's unofficial coalition partner, PPBM from Semenanjung.

MA 63 resolution

The bigger news in Sabah must be the challenge by Anifah on opposition leaders and bloggers to come and debate with him on MA 63.

The no show was reported by Semenanjong's Utusan.

KOTA KINABALU 2 Feb. - Blogger-blogger pembangkang yang selama ini menghasut rakyat Sabah untuk keluar dari Malaysia sepatutnya berpeluang berdepan dengan Menteri Luar, Datuk Seri Anifah Aman dalam satu pertemuan yang telah diatur hari ini, namun akhirnya terbukti golongan itu hanyalah lantang di media sosial. 

Ini kerana, meskipun kumpulan blogger tersebut telah bersetuju untuk bersemuka bagi membincangkan isu berkaitan Perjanjian Malaysia 1963 (MA63), tiada seorang pun yang berani tampil sehingga Anifah terpaksa menunggu selama kira-kira sejam setengah.

Berikutan sikap pengecut tersebut, sesi bersemuka yang dijadual pada pukul 2 petang di Hotel Le Meridien di sini bermula lewat dan hanya menjadi sesi penerangan antara Anifah yang juga Pengerusi MySabah bersama para petugas media serta orang awam dan pengamal undang-undang yang hadir. 

Anifah said the facts had been hidden by Tun Dr Mahathir and it would have been ISA for those telling the truth then.

He used the occasion to hint on developments made on MA63. Daily Express reported:

The Federal Cabinet has appointed Anifah and Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri to co-chair a steering committee on devolution of powers to Sabah and Sarawak.

Among the State rights under MA63 which is being worked on, including by the MySabah group, is getting the 40 per cent revenue entitlement for the State provided by the Federal Constitution.

"There is a progress on this important issue (40 per cent revenue entitlement) and we target for this first part to be completed before the GE14.

"I hope we would get something before the imminent general election and we only set this as a deadline (before GE14) which must be done properly as the process is complex and not an easy task as it is more on administrative process and long procedures.

"We are not going to confront the Government but will work with them. As a Sabahan, I believe in Najib who is concerned on this issue and willing to listen and work together with us to meet the people's aspirations in Sabah."

MA 63 will be part of BN Manifesto and it was Najib who seek solution to a problem Mahathir couldn't care less.

No details were revealed but it is heartening to hear a resolution to a prickly problem to an important item in the IGC document on 40% revenue payment.

It is heard over the political grapevine that the more difficult matter of the outstanding figure from the past also found a resolution.

Avoiding a trap

Thus, there is the likelihood is that whether Warisan responded or not to the issues, it is a lost cause for them to dwell on and even could fall into a trap.

Warisan did not take up the sovereignty issues as it could backfire on PH and Shafie himself.

Lets not forget the report from Phillipines in 2013 of opposition party members i.e. PKR's Sivarasa and Tian Chua said to have met the suluk intruders. Nurul Izzah too met the late bogus suluk Sultan Kiram's daughter and gave conciliatory statements.

Picture of Shafie with the late Sultan have been circulating.

The latest development is nine of the millitant terrorists facing death sentence is appealing at the Federal Court.

Read in Sabahkini2 here

He made compromised position during the RCI on Projek IC. Apparently it is an open secret that Shafie assisted non-citizen suluk to secure IC.

Warisan's Secretary General himself is said to be a Project IC citizen himself. In Sabah, Warisan is being stereotyped as "parti Suluk" which is Shafie's heritage.

Another nicname of Warisan is "parti lanun" and it became a brand following the recent arrest of Shafie and Vice President, Dato Peter Anthony for investigation for corruption related to KKLW.

It is an uphill battle for Shafie to avenge. Instead of trying to win, he should be seriously looking into a retreat strategy and focus his energy on the inevitable charge in a court of law.

To those that claimed Warisan can win up to 15 Parliament seats, they have been told it is impossible. There is time to pay the insurance premium on their bet and limit the lost to just half.

It was this blog that revealed Anwar's "Sabah sudah goyang" song prior to GE 13 was a decoy. Subsequently, that revelation that 18 PKR divisions would close down turned out true.

PKR too is a lost cause in Sabah.

Updated: 5/2/18 7:00 AM