Dangerous to leave Umno, Ku Li tells Sabah members

Jason Santos Jason Santos Updated 7 years ago · Published on 26 Jun 2018 8:32PM · 5 Comments

Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah says Umno defectors could be swallowed by other stronger politicians if they are not careful. – The Malaysian Insight pic, June 26, 2018.

UMNO presidential hopeful Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah said today he will not stop any Sabah Umno members from leaving the Malay party but warned of the dangers they will face if they do. 

“Sabah Umno members should think twice about new alliances because if they are not careful, it will lead them to more heartache. 

“And, this time around, they could be swallowed by stronger politicians if they are no longer with Umno. 

“That is the danger. It has happened many, many times, I swear,” the veteran Umno politician said at a stop in Kota Kinabalu on his nationwide tour in the run-up to party polls on Saturday.  

Among Sabahans, the 81-year-old, affectionately known as Ku Li, is best known as the leader of Semangat 46, the party formed in 1988 to rival Umno and which Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) cooperated with when it left Barisan Nasional ahead of the 1990 election.

PBS won the election with a narrow majority and its government collapsed after numerous assemblymen crossed over to BN, giving Sabah Umno the majority it needed to form the state government.  

For that, PBS was punished and the two-year rotation system for the chief minister post was introduced by then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad. 

PBS was only accepted back into Umno in 2001.  

Following the 14th general election, Sabahans witnessed a repeat of events when Sabah experienced a hung assembly, with Warisan-PH tied with Sabah BN at 29 seats each, leaving Sabah Star to be the kingmaker. 

PBS, LDP, Gerakan and PBRS have all left BN and remained unaligned, while Upko partnered with Warisan to form the state government. 

This leaves only MCA, Umno and a small number of MIC members in Sabah BN. 

Sabah Star’s Dr Jeffrey Kitingan said he had struck a deal with Sabah Umno liaison chief Musa Aman to form a state coalition in return for two state seats the party won in the election. 

In the deal, Sabah Umno members were supposed to join PBS to form PBS Plus and ally with Sabah Star, Sabah Progressive Party, Parti Harapan Rakyat Sabah and Parti Perpaduan Rakyat Sabah to form the new Gabungan Bersatu Sabah coalition.  

But active participation of Sabah Umno members in the Umno election showed that Umno appears to be staying put in Sabah. – June 26, 2018.

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Comments

  • UMNO members are having severe headache because of people like you who kept collecting rent from UMNO without knowing Najib have sold the nation.

    Posted 7 years ago by Mohanarajan murugeson · Reply

    • Sabah UMNO may still have a chance. We have an imbecile for a Sabah CM now!!

      Posted 7 years ago by Malaysian First · Reply

    • How ironic! Let's talk about the King of Imbeciles who left Sabahan out in the cold. Get a grip of reality. The ship had sunk! KuLi doesn't make the cut and hasn't the guts to raise the sunken ship.

      Posted 7 years ago by JK Unrowling · Reply

  • It's actually true if UMNO get back power in Putrajaya. Sabah cannot go back. They MUST permanently keep UMNO from Putrajaya. Stop threatening Pakatan, reinforce it.

    Posted 7 years ago by Bigjoe Lam · Reply

  • Well, you left once and created Semangat 46. But you lost. The point is you are like TDM a politician who only flight for your own agenda

    Posted 7 years ago by Vibnwis wis · Reply