Warisan’s Youth chief Mohd Azis Jamman said the federal government employed the tactic not just against the party’s leaders now but also past Sabah leaders to silence them.
“Remember what happened when Usno (United Sabah National Organisation) tried to defend Sabah’s rights? Sabahans were fed with all sorts of reports about how evil Tun Mustapha (Harun, the late Usno founder and chief minister from 1967-1975) was.
“The same thing happened during PBS’ time with then chief minister Joseph Pairin Kitingan was hauled to court on corruption charges.
“Now, we see the same modus operandi carried out by the federal government. Why? Because we are talking about the same thing. We are talking about Sabah’s rights,” he told FMT.
Azis, who was the former Semporna Umno Youth chief, pointed out that some people could try to dispute him by saying that the Sarawak government seemingly was able to demand Sarawak’s rights without being subjected to federal intimidation.
However, he said, the situation in Sarawak is different because the Umno-led federal government is heavily dependent on Sarawak to retain Putrajaya in the coming election.
If the Sarawak government pulled out of Barisan Nasional (BN), he said the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) would descend on the Land of the Hornbills.
For now, he said, Sarawak BN was too important to be silenced and thus was left alone.
“Charging someone with corruption is very effective and MACC seems to be acting for BN to intimidate us.
“They tried accusing leaders of having scandalous relations with women, but that didn’t work.
“Now they use corruption charges. This is blatant character assassination. They realise Warisan can cause them problems and they also noticed (Warisan president) Shafie Apdal is the pillar of the party. So they attacked him in order to weaken Warisan,” he said.
Nevertheless, Azis said, the party was ready to prove everybody wrong and that it could stand on its own without relying on Shafie.
He said the party’s struggle was not about their president and once Warisan wrested the state government from Umno, MACC could continue to investigate party leaders all they wanted.
“If Shafie is guilty, then he must go. Someone else can take over. We want good governance and nobody should be considered untouchable,” he said.
Shafie was arrested by MACC on Oct 19 and released on bail on Oct 27 in connection with the alleged misappropriation of RM1.5 billion allocated for rural development projects in Sabah during his term as minister of rural and regional development.
Other Warisan leaders who were detained and later released were vice president Peter Anthony and Azis himself.
It was reported that MACC was scrutinising a total of 72 projects out of an original list of 350 under the ministry for suspected embezzlement.
The projects were planned to be carried out between 2009 and 2015 in Kota Kinabalu, Kudat, Kota Belud, Ranau, Beaufort, Keningau, Lahad Datu, Tawau and Sandakan.
The RM1.5 billion was said to be part of RM7.5 billion allocated for water, electricity and road infrastructure development projects.
Some RM170 million in bank accounts and assets of the companies involved in the projects were reportedly frozen, and more than 45 people were questioned in the probe.
Opposition leaders claimed the investigation was politically motivated to smear the image of Warisan ahead of the 14th general election, but Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and the MACC denied this.
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