Awang Azman Pawi, an associate professor at Universiti Malaya, told FMT that the BN parties in Penampang – Upko, MCA and Umno – had shown that they could not work as a team.
Ambrose, who heads Umno’s Penampang division, became a senator yesterday, an appointment said to be a reward for his hard work with the area’s grassroots.
Awang Azman said the BN parties in Penampang, besides being “torn apart” from one another, were each suffering from internal friction.
“In each of the parties, the younger members have ideas and opinions that are different from those espoused by the older members,” he said.
He also said BN would be making a wrong move if it were to field anyone other than an Upko member for the seat.
“The ethnicity sentiment among the Kadazan-Dusun there is very strong, making Upko the only real choice for the contest there.”
He said another factor BN had to contend with was the popularity of Parti Warisan Sabah in Penampang, specifically its deputy president, Darell Leiking.
“You have to remember that Leiking was a giant slayer in the previous general election,” he said.
In 2013, Leiking, who was then a PKR member, won the Penampang seat by beating incumbent Bernard Dompok, who was then a federal minister. Leiking received 22,598 votes while Dompok got only 12,382.
Dompok was Sabah’s chief minister between 1998 and 1999. He served as plantation industries and commodities minister from 2008 to 2013. He was Upko president between 1994 and 2014 and is currently Malaysia’s ambassador to the Vatican.