Sabah PH information chief Adrian Lasimbang said the statement by Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) secretary-general Johnny Mositun, questioning Sabah PH’s motive in coming up with the separate manifesto, showed PBS’ fear of “its own shadow”.
“It means PBS is worried because they know, when they were in power, they failed in their duties and responsibilities to regain what was lost and what was taken away from Sabah by the federal government,” he told FMT.
Lasimbang, who is also Sabah DAP political education bureau chief, said the Sabah PH Manifesto Phase Two was only a part of the main manifesto which would be launched before the general election.
He added that the key to understanding all the promises stated in the manifesto would be explained in the main manifesto.
“Mositun has no imagination how the manifesto can be implemented because he had long been constrained by Umno, so much so that he can no longer think outside Umno’s political sphere.
“This is the problem with Sabah leaders, especially the Kadazandusun Murut leaders. They let themselves be so controlled by Umno that they can no longer think ahead and can only kowtow to the will of their masters,” he said.
On Saturday, Mositun had said he found it amusing that PH thought it needed to come up with more than one manifesto to convince voters in Sabah to elect its candidates.
He said it was as if Sabah PH realised something was not right with the first version and had decided to revise it and call it ‘Phase 2’.
Lasimbang, who was a local rights activist before joining the DAP, said from the beginning, Sabah PH had stated that it would launch its manifesto in phases.
He accused Mositun of making empty statements, designed to shift the attention from the failure of the BN government in handling native customary rights (NCR) land issues which had caused many indigenous communities to “slave away on their own lands”.
“The NCR land tribunal as contained in the PH manifesto was actually rejected by the Malaysian government when it was first proposed by Suhakam through the national inquiry into NCR Land in 2013.
“The tribunal was not only proposed by Suhakam but also by Chief Justice of Sabah and Sarawak Richard Malanjum.
“Unfortunately, the BN government did not care about this proposal. Maybe because it would implicate many of their cronies who had been actively involved in NCR land-grabbing,” he said.
Instead of criticising Sabah PH, Lasimbang said Mositun should look at himself in the mirror and ask what he had done to protect the rights of the indigenous people of Sabah.