Rumblings of discontent seering through BN

Queville To

A hurt Sabah Barisan Nasional ally, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is hoping that Chief Minister Musa Aman will recognise its 100% contribution to BN's victory in the 2008 polls.

SANDAKAN: Local Sabah Barisan Nasional component Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is worried that its stature and influence is slowly being whittled away by the state government under Chief Minister Musa Aman.

LDP  leader VK Liew went so far as to demand fairer treatment for the party in the imminent reshuffle of the state cabinet following the removal of Karamunting assemblyman Peter Pang as deputy chief minister.

“It goes without saying that the appointment of a cabinet minister is the prerogative power of the chief minister of the day.

“However, in exercising such discretionary power, it is an established norm that it is done judiciously having taken into consideration the interest of all component parties in BN,” he said.

Liew cited precedents set in the case of Senator T Murugiah who was sacked by the People Progressive Party (PPP) in 2009 but retained in the Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s cabinet.

“That demonstrated the prerogative power of the PM. Senator Murugiah remained in Najib’s administration even after he was sacked by PPP in 2009 until he joined MIC a year later.

“In 2010, the PM continued to retain him as a Deputy Minister in the PM’s Department but PPP was compensated with a senatorship, a deputy minister and an ambassador where Maglin D’Cruz was made the senator as well as the Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Information, Communication, Culture and Heritage.

“Another PPP’s member (party president M Kayveas’ wife) was made an ambassador to Papua New Guinea.

“That reflects fairness and reasonableness of the PM in handling the matter.

“In relation to the issue at hand here, I am not asking anything more than simply fairness and reasonableness too in the matter,” he added.

Unquestionable loyalty

He reminded that LDP had contributed to the BN victory in the 2008 general election by winning all the four seats contested in Tg Kapor (Kudat), Merotai (Tawau), Karamunting (Sandakan) and the Sandakan parliamentary seat.

“In that respect, we have contributed 100% to the victory of BN in the 2008 GE. It is also an undeniable fact that LDP has contributed positively to the political development in Sabah since its formation in 1989.

“We have since never ever abandoned our struggles with BN,” he pointed out.

Liew, a deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, said this when asked by the media on LDP’s stand on the matter at the launching of Sandakan Street Fair at the Sandakan town regarding the vacancy of DCM in the Sabah state cabinet.

Fellow BN component Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), which has taken the lion’s share of the various positions doled out by the state government after Umno, has a patchy history with the ruling coalition.

It pulled out of the BN on the eve of the 1990 state election and subsequently rejoined in 2002.
Since then it has taken on the second most dominant position in the government after Umno much to the frustration of smaller local BN parties like Upko, PBRS and LDP.

On the Karamunting state seat that was taken over by peninsula-based party Gerakan after its assemblyman Peter Pang joined the party, Liew said LDP considered the constituency their territory.

He explained that from the beginning when the constituency was formed in 1999, Karamunting had always been allocated to LDP to contest and it will continue to be so.