“No hard feelings,” the Kinabatangan MP known for his antics in the Dewan Rakyat told reporters at the Sabah Umno building here today, adding that “things must move on”.
“We respect the differences in opinion, there’s no hard feelings,” he said.
Earlier this week, Umno Supreme Council member Abdul Rahman Dahlan led 12 Sabah Umno division chiefs in opposing Bung’s appointment, saying it was not discussed and went against the full autonomy granted to the state last year.
They said they did not want a leader who had to attend court to answer corruption charges to campaign for the coalition in the Sept 26 election.
Following this, Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said it was reasonable for Bung to lead the charge as he was the Sabah BN chairman.
Zahid said that despite having different views, all parties in BN should be together to ensure victory in the election.
“Differences of opinion should be entertained, but we should respect the (fact that) the Sabah Umno liaison committee chairman and the Sabah BN chairman are appointments made by me as Umno president and BN chairman,” he said.
Bung said Umno has a system in place where those who chose to leave the party could easily be replaced by others who are capable, adding this rang true in all the 25 Umno divisions in the state.
“If a leader leaves, it doesn’t mean that division will crumble as there will be others under them to replace the leader.
“Umno has gone through this process for a long time since its inception – Tun (Onn) Jaafar, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah all left but Umno did not die but continued to progress.
“My job as the (Sabah BN polls) chief is to focus on strengthening the Umno machinery,” he said.
Bung, however, admitted a split in Sabah Umno will have repercussions on BN’s preparations for the election.
“But there is still time. Hopefully, this will not affect our preparations and campaign too much,” he said.
He said he would leave it to the party leadership to decide whether disciplinary action should be taken on the 12 dissenting chiefs, adding that Rahman had not made any attempt to contact him.
On seat negotiations, Bung said discussions were on-going with Umno’s allies, including on the constituencies the party wanted back from PPBM. He hoped the negotiations could be completed before the end of August.
He also said Sabah BN would stick to its own logo for the election.
To another question, he said former chief minister Musa Aman had also not approached him in relation to the polls.
Meanwhile, Bung has named Kimanis MP Mohamad Alamin as the Sabah BN election operations director. “He will not contest in the polls, that’s why he was picked.
“I’m sure with his experience in the Kimanis by-election, he is one of the best choices to mobilise the candidates,” he said.