THE scene at the makeshift tent set up in a wide open plot of land some 3km outside Lahad Datu was  almost like a rock concert, with thousands of people cheering as their idol approached the stage.

Except this was no rock concert. It was one of the many meet-the-people sessions under Shafie Apdal’s “Seri Jelajah Parti Warisan Sabah” tour, and the former minister-turned-opposition politician was the star of the show.

Some 12,000 people turned up at Shafie’s session that humid morning on March 4.

As Shafie walked towards the stage, hands were stretched out from both sides wanting to shake his hands, or even just to touch him. After a while, the crowd got excited and Shafie had to stop until some order was restored.

If all this attention and level of adoration from supporters was a new experience for Shafie, he did not show it.

“I used to have bodyguards to keep me safe,” he later quipped from the safety of the stage, referring to the guards he used to have as minister of rural and regional development.

“Now I don’t (but) it doesn’t matter.”

Lahad Datu has always been an Umno stronghold but on this night, the crowd cheered and chanted Shafie, who is single-minded in his effort to unseat his former friends in Sabah Umno and Barisan Nasional from power.

They punctuated Shafie’s nearly two-hour speech with shouts of support, condemnation of BN policies and Warisan’s battle cries, “Sabah Ubah” (change for Sabah) and “Undi Warisan” (vote for Warisan).

Lahad Datu, where a month-long military clash took place in 2013 between the army and police with more than 200 armed militants from the “Royal Security Forces of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo”, is in the Silam parliamentary constituency.

All three state seats that make up the parliamentary seat – Tungku, Lahad Datu and Kunak – are held by Umno, with Shafie’s brother, Mohammad Yusoff Apdal, the assemblyman of Lahad Datu.

When Shafie ripped into Umno and BN leaders and called them leaders who “only made life difficult for them”, he was met with rapturous approval.

“What does BN stands for?” the five-term MP in neighbouring Semporna asked.

The reply from the crowd of those in the oil palm plantation industry and business was a thunderous “Barang Naik” (rising costs).

Shafie spoke on a wide range of issues but those closest to their heart – difficulty to own native land, high unemployment and security – were met with strong approval.

A Bajau housewife, Ida, whose husband worked in one of the many oil palm plantations, said she was switching her political allegiance to Warisan because “I believe in him (Shafie)”.

“Look, he’s (Shafie) telling the truth about our hardship. There are thousands of hectares of land around here under oil palm plantations.

“There are several palm oil refineries. Yet how come cooking oil is expensive in Lahad Datu?

“We produce some of the country’s cooking oil here but yet we are paying the same as you are paying in your city. How can this be?”

Arman, a taxi driver, was also upset over the rising cost of goods, especially fuel, and said it was increasingly difficult to make ends meet.

“I’m making the switch and will vote for Warisan,” said Arman, also a Bajau.

The housewife and taxi driver, who only gave their first names for fear of intimidation and reprisal, are not the only ones pledging to make the switch.

Shafie reportedly received some 10,700 applications to join his five-month-old party following the gathering at Lahad Datu.

His aides said the bulk of the applications, presented to Shafie in large brown envelopes, were “from Umno members”.

If the number is true, it is significant as it represents one-fifth of the 51,662 voters in this Muslim Bumiputera-majority parliamentary constituency in the 2013 electoral roll.

Shafie said a majority of applicants were from rural areas, which have been traditionally BN supporters, adding weight to his prediction that the next elections will see a major upset for the ruling government.

“It is time to change. Time to choose leaders who will not make life difficult for you,” he said.

“Time to no longer make Sabah a ‘fixed deposit’ for BN.” – April 2, 2017.