A VIRAL video of the Sabah chief minister equating Bersatu to Umno was taken before the ruling party entered Sabah, said Mohd Shafie Apdal.

Shafie said Warisan members at the time were worried about the peninsula-based party’s planned entry into the state and expressed their reservations.

“There were some who were thinking of leaving Warisan to join Bersatu as they wanted positions in that party. But now we are working together with Bersatu,” Shafie told reporters after attending the Kota Kinabalu City Hall’s Moving Forward programme in the state capital today. 

In the video, the chief minister had warned Warisan members that Bersatu was made up mostly of former Umno members and urged them to remain in his party.

Bersatu spread its wings into Sabah on April 6 despite opposition from Warisan, the ruling party in Sabah and a Pakatan Harapan ally. 

Shafie, who is Warisan president, had a verbal agreement with Bersatu before the 14th general election that it will not enter Sabah and allow the state-based party to take charge. 

But several Sabah Umno leaders and lawmakers abandoned their party at the end of 2018 to be independents before joining Bersatu this year. Sabah Bersatu members mostly are former Umno members.

Yesterday, the woman who was seen speaking with Shafie in the video, Mariani Sulaman, published a live video on Facebook, denying ill-intention towards Warisan and accused Usno information chief Mosli Oli of releasing the private video on social media. 

Mariani is still a Warisan member.

Usno is aligned with the opposition in Sabah and appeared to be working together with Umno and MCA. 

Sabah political analyst Lee Kuok Tiung told The Malaysian Insight that Shafie might be joking when he equated Umno to Bersatu as it was a private conversation between Shafie and a party member. 

“If that was a speech in public then it might have a different meaning, even what he said might reflect what’s inside his heart towards Bersatu,” said Lee, pointing out that it is no secret that Warisan never wanted Bersatu in Sabah. – August 22, 2019.