Friday August 29, 2008 MYT 1:06:29 PM

Sabah MPs reject loyalty pledge

By RUBEN SARIO

KOTA KINABALU: Many of the 24 Sabah Barisan Nasional MPs are rejecting a move to get them to sign a loyalty pledge to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

State Barisan Backbenchers Club chairman Datuk Anifah Aman said the move proposed by Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Datuk Shafie Apdal was an insult to the Sabah MPs. He added that the pledge should instead be signed by all Barisan MPs nationwide.

He said various Sabah MPs including himself had repeatedly voiced their loyalty to the Barisan leadership and pledged that they had no intention of crossing over to join the opposition.

“We did this during the Permatang Pauh campaign, on television and again in Kota Kinabalu. Is the frequency of denial equivalent to our loyalty?” said Anifah, the Kimanis MP and Kimanis Umno chief.

He said many Sabah Barisan backbenchers had called him asking about the pledge and some had said they felt that they were being treated like “cattle.”

Anifah questioned Shafie's real intentions for proposing the loyalty pledge and wondered whether it was aimed at scoring “political points” in his bid for the Umno vice-president's post in the party polls.

On Thursday, Shafie had said that Sabah and Sarawak MPs would be submitting a pledge declaring their loyalty to the Prime Minister by Friday or Saturday. He had said the MPs from both states would never quit the coalition despite the various rumours about them.

Kalabakan MP Datuk Abdul Ghapur Salleh said the loyalty pledge seemed to infer that Sabah MPs could not be trusted.

Saying he would not be signing any such pledge, Ghapur, the Kalabakan Umno chief, said the Sabah MPs had been vocal about issues affecting the state as they felt that these problems had to be resolved.

“But this should never be misconstrued as us being disloyal to the leadership,” he added.

Karambunai MP Datuk Eric Majimbun, the Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) deputy president, said neither he nor fellow SAPP MP Datuk Dr Chua Soon Bui of Tawau would be signing such a pledge.

“What is the point of such a pledge? This so-called pledge doesn't make sense,” he said.