Kota Kinabalu: Gerakan Kuasa Rakyat Malaysia Chairman Datuk Zulkarnain Mahdar opines that Sabah Umno has lost credible leaders and “are left with immature people”.
“As an independent activist active in Sabah since 1995, the country’s laws permit me to voice opinions even without being registered as a member of any political party,” said Zulkarnain in a statement, Saturday.
He said this in response to the party’s Strategic Communications Director Datu Rosman Ahir Zaman who said he (Zulkarnain) has no right to interfere in Umno’s internal affairs and is disloyal to the party.
window.googletag = window.googletag || {cmd: []};googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.defineSlot('/22826383987/dailyexpress_inline', [1, 1], 'gpt-passback').addService(googletag.pubads());googletag.enableServices();googletag.display('gpt-passback');});“In 1996, I actively opposed Umno when disagreeing with Tun Mahathir’s decision to rotate the Sabah Chief Minister position through the Kumpulan Belia Pencinta Nusa (Cintanusa),” said Zulkarnain.
“When the Chief Minister rotation was cancelled, I returned to supporting Umno and later opposed Umno again after (Sabah head) Bung Moktar collaborated with (Warisan’s) Shafie Apdal to topple (CM) Hajiji through a failed coup, as an activist rather than an active Umno member.
“I also confirm to never being a member of any Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) component and have been running my own business in Kuala Lumpur since 2018,” he said.
“Bung’s main problem now is placing the wrong individuals in Sabah Umno’s leadership line-up. A simple example, more qualified leaders like former Umno Youth Chief Datuk Julkarnain should have been given this responsibility,” he said.
He said almost all of Rosman’s statements are not fact-based and appear completely unhelpful in convincing Sabahans to support Umno again.
“When Warisan governed Sabah in 2018, Rosman was never seen criticising Shafie, but now acts like a hero attacking the GRS-PH government.
“It is regrettable that Rosman cannot distinguish Umno’s real enemies in Sabah,” he said.
He said it was Warisan that toppled Umno in 2018 through undemocratic means, causing Umno to lose power in Sabah.
“When Warisan governed Sabah, the State’s economy declined sharply, proven by GDP dropping from Malaysia’s highest rate of 8.2 per cent to just 0.5 per cent within two years.
“The appointment of cronies to top posts (‘Sempornaisation’), failure to attract foreign investors, proposing an island for Filipinos and many other weaknesses, yet all this has blinded Rosman who sees GRS-PH as the enemy instead of Warisan,” he said.