NANAM: The State Reform Party (STAR) has lashed out at Sabah Umno for
attempting to divert attention away from the self-inflicted security
problem that has occurred in the state during its watch.
STAR Sabah deputy chairman Daniel John Jambun said the attempt by
Sabah Umno leaders to focus on opposition leader Tian Chua of PKR and
his comments about the on-going security crisis in the state was absurd
and an attempt to defect criticism.
He said that the call to ban Tian Chua from ever entering Sabah
rather than imposing one on Umno leaders particularly former premier Dr
Mahathir Mohamad, on whom the blame for the crisis can be placed, was
the hight of hypocrisy.
“Mahathir and Umno leaders were in cahoots on “Projek IC” … to give
out Malaysian documents to illegal immigrants in Sabah. They are the
ones who should be barred,” Jambun said.
A series of police reports have made against Tian Chua for his
earlier statement that the Lahad Datu incident was all of Umno’s doing.
Jambun said the hue and cry by Umno supporters lodging police reports
and calling for Tian Chua to be barred from entering Sabah is a
concerted effort by the ruling party to divert attention from
allegations that a whole Umno branch in Lahad Datu had been compromised
by the crisis.
Allegations have been made that several of those involved in the Kg
Tanduo takeover by a band of Filipino mercenaries allied to the
self-proclaimed Sultan of Sulu Jamalul Karim III are Umno members.
The brutal slaughter of eight Malaysian policemen by the mercenaries has left Umno leaders wringing their hands in distress.
Jambun, STAR chairman Jeffrey Kitingan’s outspoken deputy said, Umno
leaders were squirming following the raid by the armed Filipino group
especially after Chief Minister Musa Aman had time and again over the
years assured that the east coast of the state is secure.
“Tian Chua’s unfavourable comment against Umno on the Sulu gunmen in
Sabah would of course infuriate some Umno members, but look at the real
issue at hand and who contributed to the whole problems linked to these
illegal immigrants,” said Jambun in a statement here.
He said it was former premier Mahathir and his fellow Umno leaders,
including current premier Najib Tun Razak, who put in place a scheme to
grants Malaysian citizenship to hundreds of thousands of illegal
immigrants from the Philippines.
