Free Malaysia TodayThu, 19 Aug 2010
By Dominic Legeh

PENAMPANG: Barisan Nasional component party Upko is standing by its president Bernard Dompok, who was labelled as irresponsible by Sabah Umno.

Upko secretary-general Wilfred Madius Tangau said it was unfortunate that Sabah Umno liaison deputy chairman Salleh Said Keruak could not read the “pulse of the people” well.

He was commenting on Dompok’s remark that Umno was a hindrance to the promotion of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s 1Malaysia concept, which he said was spot on.

“The fact is, this burning question is not in the mind of Dompok alone, but is a pertinent question in the mind of the grassroots including those of BN component party leaders. We support fully what our president has courageously stated publicly,” he said in a press statement.

Tangau, who called Salleh, a former Sabah chief minister, as his “friend”, presumed that the Sabah Umno liaison deputy chief did not get the true picture of the issue.

“It is unfortunate that my friend Salleh has not correctly understood what my president was trying to say last Sunday, regarding Upko’s fears for the 1Malaysia concept,” he said.

Dompok, who spoke to the media after an Upko convention in Penampang on Sunday, said: “Najib has a good plan for the country, 1Malaysia, People First, Performance Now.”

“What I am afraid of is this, will he be allowed by his party and those NGOs surrounding his party to do the task that he feels is good for the country? That is the burning question in my head”.

On Tuesday, Salleh described the remark as irresponsible and said that Dompok should not question whether Umno understood the true meaning or spirit of the 1Malaysia concept.

‘Is that irresponsible, or simply a fact?’

But Tangau said: “As a friend, I now ask Salleh, is that an irresponsible statement? Or is that a statement of fact?”

“Isn’t it a fact that a certain NGO vehemently opposed some of the recommendations of the Economic Transformation Plan (ETP) in the form of the New Economic Model (NEM) to the extent that the work of Amirsham Aziz, the chairman of the National Economic Advisory Council (NEAC) has been stalled? And now the programme formulations of the NEM has been given to Pemandu under Idris Jala?” he added.

He said even elder statesman Dr Mahatir Mohamed had said that the 1Malaysia concept needed further explanation.

Tangau said that as a senior leader of his party, Salleh should ponder over these facts, cut out the emotion and begin working harmoniously with the rest of the BN team members.

On Salleh’s contention that it is “normal” for Umno leaders to publicly demand to contest the parliamentary seats of Kota Kinabalu, Putatan and Ranau as well as the state constituencies of Tanjung Kapor and Merotai, Tangau said Upko begs to differ.

“Upko thinks that such a demand is “abnormal” and smacks of arrogance. Imagine a Malay-based component party demanding to contest in the Chinese dominated opposition held parliamentary constituency of Kota Kinabalu? Isn’t that abnormal?” he asked.

He stressed that Upko was not showing displeasure because Umno made known publicly that it was interested in seats allocated to Upko as alleged by former Sabah Progressive Party member Raymond Tan who has since switched to Gerakan.

Tangau said Upko was more concerned about the dent to the BN image created by such reckless demands by Umno which had damaged the power sharing concept, a core BN principle.

”Mahathir once assured Upko in as speech that Umno will never contest more than half of the state and parliamentary constituencies in Sabah as a mark of commitment to the BN concept of formal power sharing, harmonious politics and loyalty to friends in BN. But today all those assurances are not adhered to.

“Not only (does) Umno contest more than half of (the) seats but they are asking for more,” he added.

Was there a ‘Projek IC’?

On the issue of illegal immigrants, Tangau said Upko was glad that Umno also wanted this issue resolved as stated by Salleh.

”That being the case, I humbly ask Salleh to advise the state government to begin the process by determining the future of the estimated 57,000 to 84,000 IMM13 document holders.

“For how long will the documents be renewed? Did the state government ever consent to any of the IMM13 holders to be given Permanent Resident status?” he asked.

Tangau also wanted to know if there was “any move to resolve the future of the so called UNHCR settlsments in Kg.Boronuon, Telipok, Skim Penempatan in Kinarut, Lahad Datu, Sandakan and so on?”

Could “the state government begin to explain to the people the extraordinary increase in the population of Sabah? Was there really a Projek IC as alleged by a former Umno leader from Lahad Datu by the name of M.D Mutalib?”

Upko, he said, welcomed the “millions of ringgit spent on security forces and high-tech equipment along our coastlines for the purpose of surveillance, but obviously the millions spent have not met with the desired results. Why?”

On the RM2 billion gas pipeline from Kimanis to Bintulu, Tangau said that Dompok had requested former premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to scrap it, which the latter initially agreed but the Cabinet backtracked later .

Dompok nevertheless insisted that national oil company, Petronas, should use the gas to generate electricity for Sabah as well as to feed the petrochemical plant and only the leftover gas be piped to Bintulu, he said.

“Finally I have this to tell Salleh: As a friend it is unfortunate that we have to reply to each other in this manner in the media because unlike the BN supreme council meeting, the Sabah BN liaison committee has not set the meeting schedule as directed by the BN secretary general,” he said.