Bung in denial, Sabah Umno now paralysed, says Sukau rep

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Umno chief Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin has lost his grassroots support in his Kinabatangan stronghold, says his key opponent Parti Warisan Sabah’s Sukau assemblyman Datuk Saddi Abdul Rahman.

Saddi said that more then 60% of the 200 branches in Kinabatangan Umno had dissolved, with some 5,000 members leaving the party to join Warisan.

“Bung Mokthar is in a state of denial. 

"The reality on the ground is that he has lost his support,” Saidi said Wednesday (Jan 31) when contacted.

Bung, the controversial Kinabatangan MP, has insisted his division was intact, dismissing reports that more then 3,000 Umno members had left the party over the past weekend to join Warisan.

Saddi said that most of the Umno branches in the Kinabatangan constituency were closing shop after he (Saddi) left the party to join Warisan in early December.

He also noted that the move by former Upko vice president Datuk Masiung Bannah, Kuamut assemblymen, also triggered more Umno members in Kinabatangan to join Warisan.

Saddi said the Sabah Umno chief should look at the political reality on the ground.

He said with the mass exodus of Sabah Umno leaders leaving the party on Dec 12, Sabah Umno is paralysed.

Saddi said the reality was that Umno was no longer relevant to Sabah.

Sabah Umno, which led the Sabah Barisan Nasional government since 1994, lost its grip on power in the May 9 general election and was crippled further when 18 lawmakers and 21 state division chief quit the party on Dec 12 to become independent assemblymen.

Bung Mokthar was made Sabah Umno chief after the former Umno leaders, led by the then state chairman Datuk Hajiji Mohd Noor, left party to become independents. 

They were expecting to set up the Sabah wing of Parti Bumiputera Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu), but the move provoked protests from Warisan, as well as Pakatan Harapan coalition partners.