Sabah MP crossover for real — via defunct party

Sabah MP crossover for real — via defunct party
KOTA KINABALU, May 16 — It is almost fait accompli. A clutch of Sabah MPs will leave the Barisan Nasional, resurrect a defunct Sabah political party and then join Pakatan Rakyat.

When Kalabakan MP Datuk Ghapur Salleh sketched a similar scenario in Parliament this week, he was merely referring to a plan being cobbled together after a series of meetings between several Sabah MPs and representatives of the Opposition, including a recent meeting in Hong Kong with Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

The plan calls for BN MPs from Sabah to ratchet up the pressure on the Abdullah administration over lack of representation in the Cabinet, growing interference by the federal government in the running of the state and the problematic illegal immigrant situation.

The main pressure point will be the demand for oil royalties for Sabah to be increased from 5 per cent to 20 per cent — a demand the Sabah MPs know Abdullah will have difficulty fulfilling anytime soon.

Since Election 2008, Sabah politicians, notably Datuk Anifah Aman, Datuk Yong Teck Lee and Ghapur, have voiced their displeasure at what they believe is second class treatment by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and the federal government towards Sabahans.

Anifah and Ghapur turned down positions as deputy ministers in the administration, believing that they deserved more senior appointments. In Yong’s case, he was upset at not being allowed by the BN leadership to contest the Kota Kinabalu parliamentary seat, consigning the president of the Sabah Progressive Party to a bit player until the next general elections.

The level of discontent coincided with talk that Anwar had managed to convince some Sabah MPs to cross over to Pakatan Rakyat with promises of senior positions in the administration and more autonomy for the East Malaysian state. Since then, some BN MPs have come forward to say they have been offered millions of ringgit to switch political allegiance.

The Malaysian Insider has learnt a key intermediary between the BN MPs and Pakatan Rakyat is a businessman who used to be a big corporate name in Sabah before the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997. He had close links with Yong when the latter was the chief minister under the rotation system.

Yong met the PM this week and cautioned him that if some of the demands of Sabahans are not met soon, there could be a crossover. More telling was the comment Ghapur made in the House this week when he ruled out jumping straight from Umno to the Opposition.

"We have never jumped. We can move by simply forming a new party. Then we can decide where we want to sit... here or there," he said.

Ghapur, speaking during the debate on the Royal Address, complained that Sabah had been sidelined by the federal government.

He said Sabah not only lagged behind the rest of Malaysia in terms of development but its people were treated as second-class citizens.

Ghapur said that Anifah reflected the ground sentiment when he said that there was nothing wrong in defecting to the Opposition if the BN continued to treat Sabah with little respect.

Still, the disgruntled Sabah politicians know that if they resigned from Umno or SAPP and joined the PKR, they will be labelled as political opportunists and may have difficulty broadening their support base in the state.

They would face far less criticism and would stand a chance of drawing more support from other Sabah MPs if they resurrected a dormant Sabah political party and joined the Pakatan Rakyat, arguing along the way that this was the only approach to ensure Sabah interests are protected.