Musa plays down MPs exit from coalition

KOTA KINABALU: Chief Minister Musa Aman has played down the resignation of Upko deputy president Wilfred Bumburing as the Tuaran Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman.

Musa, who is Sabah BN chairman, has also dismissed speculations that the internal crisis brewing within the coalition would affect their preparations in facing the 13th general election.

Met after presenting Zam Zam water and robes from Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to division Umno chiefs here yesterday, Musa said he had not personally received Bumburing’s resignation letter.

He also refused to be drawn into speculations about the reasons for Bumburing relinquishing the Tuaran BN chairman’s post on Monday and advised state BN leaders not to be distracted by internal problem in Upko and to focus on the BN’s efforts and struggle for the people.

“We are not looking after individual’s own political interest. What is more important is the interest of the people and for us to make sure that every development project and programme that we (BN) have planned and implemented would have maximum impact on the rakyat,” he said.

Musa added that internal problems in a party would serve BN no purpose and would only give more ammunition to the opposition.

He said what was more important was for the state BN component parties to move forward and focus on what they have been doing all this while, strengthen cooperation, set aside differences and meet the people’s expectations.

Bumburing said on Monday he had resigned from the post effective immediately and that his letter of resignation had been faxed to the BN secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor in Kuala Lumpur, with copies submitted to Musa’s office, Upko president Bernard Dompok and party secretary-general Madius Tangau.

Bumburing, who won the Tuaran parliamentary seat in the last general election in 2008, also said he would be making an important announcement with regard to the future direction of his political struggle during a special gathering at Dalit, Tuaran, this Sunday.

It is understood that Beaufort member of parliament Lajim Ukin, who is also Umno supreme council member, is also expected to make an announcement during a “berbuka puasa” function at his residence in Beaufort on that day.

PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim is expected to attend Lajim’s buka puasa event.

‘Too much politicking’

Dismissing speculations that the on-going problems brewing with the Sabah BN would affect the coalition preparations for the coming general election, Musa said: “We are going to face the coming elections as a family fuelled by the spirit of oneness and the resolve to win so we can continue the BN struggle for the people.

“There is too much politicking with the opposition already; let’s not get distracted by in-party politicking.”

Dompok declined comment on Bumburing’s resignation as Tuaran BN chairman when met during his working visit in Kinabatangan yesterday.

Meanwhile, a senior Sabah BN leader has called on the BN leadership to investigate why some BN leaders in Sabah are ditching the coalition.

VK Liew, the president of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), stressed the need for BN leadership to find out what the grouses of these leaders were and why they were making such threatening remarks.

“If they are doing it for their own self-interest so that they can gain certain position, then the central leadership will have to take certain action against them.

“But if they are doing it because of certain dissatisfaction, the central leadership will then have to look at their grouses to verify the truth or otherwise of their complaints,” he said.

In recent times, both Bumburing and Lajim have been making strong criticisms against the BN-led government.

Musa under fire

Bumburing has been unhappy with the way the federal government has been handling the relentless demands from Sabah leaders for the setting up of the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) in probing the illegal immigrant problems and issuance of dubious identity cards to foreigners.

Lajim himself has openly called on the central BN leadership to change the state BN leadership.

Apart from Lajim, a few other state BN leaders had also made similar calls and one of them is LDP deputy president Chin Su Phin.

A few years ago, Chin said the LDP had lost confidence in Musa’s leadership and called for his resignation, which prompted Kamamunting assemblyman Peter Pang and several party leaders from his constituency to quit the party.

Michael Kaung