High stakes ‘gamble’ in Sabah politics

Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim is unperturbed by the
aborted plans of two BN MPs who were supposed to
announce their defection yesterday.

By Joseph Tawie and Joseph Bingkasan of FMT

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah politics is all about hanging on to power and the latest postponement of the over-hyped “pullout” from the Barisan Nasional by two government MPs facing the axe in the coming general election stressed this.

United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko) deputy president and Tuaran MP Wilfred Bumburing and Umno supreme council member Lajim Ukin, who is MP for Beaufort, are looking at ways to defend their seats in a desperate political gamble.

They were scheduled to declare their resignation at functions in Tuaran and Beaufort yesterday in the presence of PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim.

Bumburing, Lajim exit plan aborted again

By Raymond Tombung of FMT

Potential defectors Wilfred Bumburing and Lajim Ukin are
'playing tarik tali' with the BN leadership in view of
the current political scenario in Sabah.

KOTA KINABALU: Plans to enable Upko deputy president Wilfred Mojilip Bumburing and Umno warlord Lajim Ukin to announce their exit from Barisan Nasional have been aborted.

Senior PKR leaders and the organising officials of the gatherings on July 15 in Beaufort (for Lajim) and in Tuaran (for Bumburing) have confirmed that the planned jump by Bumburing and Lajim has been “suddenly aborted, or postponed”.

The development has heightened curiosity amongst observers.

Senior PKR leaders, who are disheartened by the turn of events, were given varied reasons for the cancellation of Bumburing’s formal announcement to ditch BN.

Sabah MPs to quit BN this week?

Will Upko's Wilfred Bumburing and Umno's Lajim Ukin
announce their exit from their respective
parties on July 15?

By Joseph Bingkasan of FMT

KOTA KINABALU: National coalition MPs Wilfred Bumburing and Lajim Ukin are expected to announce their pullout from their respective parties during gatherings in Tuaran and Beaufort, respectively on June 15.

PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim will be attending both functions where the two are expected to become “independent” MPs.

Bumburing who is Tuaran MP will make his much awaited announcement in Tuaran in the morning while in the afternoon Beaufort MP Lajim is to formalise his departure from the BN at his hometown in Beaufort.

Although both leaders would be declaring that they are leaving the government coalition parties in the presence of Anwar, they are not expected to join either PKR or other opposition Pakatan Rakyat component members.

The ghost of 1994 haunts Lajim Ukin

Former bellhop is scared of his own shadow

Mention Lajim Ukin and he takes you back to 1994. That was the year when he defected from the opposition Parti Bersatu Sabah which won the Sabah election by a razor-thin two-seat margin but was denied the government. His action opened a floodgate of defections from PBS to the nationally ruling Barisan Nasional coalition. After 18 years, that has remained Lajim’s best achievement in politics. But the ghost of 1994 has never deserted him. Now as he chases shadows, the federal lawmaker of Beaufort is afraid of his own.

Perhaps the 57-year-old Lajim has seen the writing on the wall. So he has made a few pre-emptive moves: he quits as the head of the Kerambai Kebatu branch of the United Malays National Organisation (Umno) and announces that he would not be defending his Beaufort division chief post and says that he may not even defend his parliamentary seat. He fears that the BN leadership may not allow him to do so.

Awkward weekend foray for Najib

By Luke Rintod of FMT 

KENINGAU: The people in the interior divisions of Sabah are preparing to use the weekend visit of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, the third this year, as an opportunity to deliver a strong message about what they feel about his party, Umno, and his leadership style.

Najib will be in Keningau today (Saturday) to officiate at the national-level Kaamatan Festival and then he moves to nearby Tambunan in the weekend to launch the ground-breaking of a Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS)-initiated KDM College.

June 10 ‘victory’ for Lajim-Anwar?

By Luke Rintod of FMT 

KOTA KINABALU: Lajim Ukin, the influential Umno warlord in the south-interior of Sabah, is said to be “definitely” ditching the party to join not the Sabah People’s Front (SPF) as rumoured, but PKR.

Reliable insiders claimed that the Umno supreme council member and MP for Beaufort is preparing for a June 10 exit and that Pakatan Rakyat coalition de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim himself would fly to Sabah to receive not only Lajim but also scores of other Sabah Umno and United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation leaders.