KOTA KINABALU: Warisan president Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal may be selling himself as a leader who has integrity and one who champions good values, but in reality he has a long history of hypocrisy going back to the time when he was climbing the ranks in the peninsula-based Malay party, Umno.
Parti Cinta Sabah (PCS) Wanita Chief Dr Regina Lim today cautioned the people in Sabah not to be deceived by his style of politics for he has on countless occasions said one thing but done just the opposite.
“It is unbecoming of a president of a party, let alone a former Chief Minister, to threaten his critics with lawsuits instead of answering the allegations leveled against him,” she said in reference to his latest threat to take legal action against PCS president Datuk Seri Anifah Aman and Star president Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan for allegedly exposing that he was not originally from Sabah.
Dr Lim suggested that the threat was contrary to what he had always preached that criticisms should be welcomed as it was part of democracy and ensured good governance.
“In fact, when urged to take legal action against the federal government to fight for Sabah’s rights as enshrined in Malaysia Agreement 1963 and the Federal Constitution, Shafie reiterated that he believed in the consultation approach and not confrontation.
“Therefore, Shafie proved himself to be Sabah’s biggest hypocrite when he threatened to sue his critics, namely Parti Cinta President Datuk Seri Anifah Aman and Sabah STAR President Datuk Dr Jeffery Kitigan, if they continue to level accusations against him,” she stressed.
Those who are familiar with Shafie’s politicking style are aware that it is a classic Shafie’s response to threaten his critics with lawsuits when he finds his back against the wall, a situation he currently finds himself in, she added.
However, she pointed out that until today, Shafie has never initiated a suit against any of his critics.
“The reason why Shafie failed to follow through with his threat is a not a mystery,” she said.
Lim said the fickle-minded Shafie was exposed by the then Foreign Minister Anifah when speaking during the Umno Sabah Zone 3 delegates meeting in 2017.
“A compilation of videos depicting Shafie, a former Umno vice-president, changing his stance before and after losing his ministerial portfolio was shown to the delegates and in the first video Shafie stated that he would not leave Umno even if he had no position in the federal cabinet.
“The other videos showed him announcing his departure from the party and taking back his words about continuing the struggle for Umno,” she said.
Dr Lim also recalled that In 2009, then then Rural and Regional Development Minister Shafie threatened to sue then Batu member of parliament Tian Chua over allegations that the former and his associates had received kickbacks from contractors in exchange for contracts.
“At that material time, Shafie denied the allegations, calling them “ridiculous and untrue”. But despite all that, he never sued Tian Chua although the allegations were lingering around till the day he was sacked from UMNO and joined Pakatan Harapan.”
“Later in 2018, Anifah was alleged to have linked Shafie’s ancestry to illegal immigrants and had also purportedly accused Warisan of trying to resurrect the Sulu Sultanate’s claim on Sabah,” she said.
According to her, it has become public knowledge that Anifah’s statement to that effect had actually been twisted by Shafie and Warisan to gain political mileage.
“Although we know that Anifah’s words were twisted by Shafie and Warisan as usual to get sympathy, what was Shafie’s response? Threaten to sue. Did he sue? No.
“Shafie, if you fail to sue as promised, then at least respond to the allegations leveled against you and prove them wrong,” said Dr Lim.
Shafie’s failure to sue previously clearly proves that he is just playing up to the crowd to get sympathy, she added.-pr/BNN
