The
Malaysian Insider melaporkan akan ada kejutan di negeri di bawah bayu,
Sabah. Kejutannya adalah akan terdapat ahli parlimen dan senator Barisan
Nasional (BN) yang bakal menyertai Pakatan Rakyat (Pakatan).
Ketua
Pembangkang, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim akan ke Sabah hari ini. Beliau
dikatakan akan menyambut kemasukkan ahli parlimen dan senator tersebut
dalam sebuah majlis.
Bekas ketua menteri Sabah, Datuk Seri Osu Sukam dikatakan akan turut menyertai Pakatan. Benarkah ini bakal berlaku?
Minggu lalu, timbalan presiden PKR, YB Azmin Ali dan pasukannya ke Sabah. Hari ini Anwar Ibrahim pula.
Mungkin
kali ini, PKR mengubah strategi agar tidak menghebohkan perkara ini
terlebih dahulu seperti kesilapan lalu diambang 16 September 2008.
Laporan The Malaysian Insider:
Defections from BN expected as Anwar visits Sabah today
KUALA LUMPUR, June 10 — Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s visit to Sabah today
and recent claim that a “surprise” would shift the state’s political
landscape have triggered speculation that Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders
there are joining PKR, including at least one MP, a senator and three
political veterans.
Leading the list is Tuaran MP and UPKO (United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun
Murut Organisation) deputy president Datuk Seri Wilfred Mojilip
Bumburing, whom rumourmongers have claimed is almost certain to shift to
the opposition party by this afternoon.
Earlier this week, Anwar had hinted during a dinner function of a “surprise” to be announced soon in Sabah. — file pic
A local PKR leader told The Malaysian Insider last
night that Bumburing is expected to launch the Kadazandusun’s annual
Kaamatan festival today in Kota Belud, an Umno-held federal seat, and
Anwar may grace the event at 3.30pm to make the highly-anticipated
announcement.
“Bumburing will launch Kaamatan and Anwar will be there around 3.30pm.
He (Anwar) arrives (in Kota Kinabalu) at 1.40pm,” the leader said.
If everything goes according to plan, the leader said, more political
conversions may be announced by tonight during a party function at the
Star City Convention Hall in Kota Kinabalu.
“But no... it will not be a mass crossover. Very unlikely. We do not want to pre-empt anything big now,” the leader said.
“We are most certain about Tuaran (MP). I believe that he has joined our
fight, believes in our struggle. The rest... still dangerous to say.”
Apart from Bumburing, the name of Beaufort MP and Umno supreme council
member Datuk Seri Lajim Ukin, who is said to be growing increasingly
disenchanted with his party leadership, has also been bandied about of
late in the media and within local political circles.
But the PKR source told The Malaysian Insider that
there have been much haggling and counter-offers thrown from across the
South China Sea as Umno’s top leadership in the peninsula struggle to
turn the tide against the opposition in the “land below the wind”.
“So many counter-offers being done since this afternoon. Even as we
speak, there are offers being thrown around,” the source said.
The source added that with Anwar’s failed September 16 takeover still
hanging over the leader’s head, no one in the party dares to trumpet
today’s rumoured mass political conversions, which some have already
referred to as “106” (June 10).
“Still dangerous to pre-empt. Four or five? Unlikely. But let’s keep in
touch. We will see by the afternoon,” the source told this news portal.
But on micro-blogging site Twitter all yesterday afternoon, talk of the
possible crossovers was rife with former Sabah chief minister Datuk Yong
Teck Lee openly naming four individuals who may announce their PKR
memberships tonight.
“Just name them lah — Osu (the ex-CM), Sen. Maijol (UPKO), Amir Kahar
(the son) and Kasitah (ex-minister). Will it happen?” he posted in reply
to journalist Philip Golingai (@PhilipGolingai).
Yong, who leads local opposition party Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP),
was responding to an earlier tweet from Golingai claiming that “a former
Sabah chief minister, a senator, a son of Tun Mustapha, an ex federal
minister are on the list of mass political conversion”.
The four individuals named by Yong were former Sabah chief minister
Datuk Seri Osu Sukam, UPKO vice-president Senator Datuk Maijol Mahap,
former Banggi assemblyman Datuk Amir Kahar Mustapha and former federal
minister Tan Sri Kasitah Gaddam.
Osu, who was chief minister from 1999 to 2011, resigned from Umno in
2005 following allegations that he had accumulated gambling debts of up
to RM7.14 million from a London casino.
So many counter-offers being done since this afternoon. Even as we speak, there are offers being thrown around. — PKR source
Amir Kahar, the son of one of Sabah’s founding fathers Tun Mustapha
Harun, had previously held the Banggi seat for 22 years before he was
axed from Umno’s candidates list for Election 2008.
Kasitah was the former land and co-operative development minister who
was charged with two counts of corruption in 2004 but was acquitted in
2009.
“For now, it starts with the Tuaran MP. The others may not... they could
still be in for the counter-offers. We cannot say for certain what will
happen,” the PKR source told The Malaysian Insider.
Earlier this week, a confident Anwar had claimed during a dinner
function of a marked improvement in support for the opposition in Sabah,
a known BN fortress.
The opposition leader, when predicting that Pakatan Rakyat (PR) would
take its seat in Putrajaya after the 13th general election with a
“comfortable majority” win, had also hinted of a “surprise” to be
announced soon in Sabah.
The “surprise”, he claimed, would change the entire political landscape
of the state where in Election 2008, BN had swept up 59 out of 60 state
seats and 24 out of 25 parliamentary seats.
Federal seats in east Malaysia’s Sabah and Sarawak are expected to be
PR’s focal point come the elections as both states, including the
federal territory of Labuan, make up a whopping 57 seats, or 25 per cent
of the 222 Parliamentary seats available.
In Election 2008, BN retained power over the Putrajaya administrative
capital largely due to wins in east Malaysia and Labuan, where it made a
near-clean sweep, winning 55 seats against PR’s two.
But the ruling pact lost its customary two-thirds parliamentary majority
after only securing a five-seat margin ahead of PR in the peninsula,
winning in just 85 constituencies while PR secured 80 seats.
In Sabah, the deep-seated issue of illegal immigrants will likely be
used as a key campaign issue in the coming polls, with the Najib
administration holding the trump card for having finally agreed to
investigate the issue by forming a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI).