GE15: Pick an MP who won't be missing all the time, says Penampang contender Jimmy

KOTA KINABALU: The Independent candidate for Penampang says he is the best choice among the four hopefuls there as he will not "disappear" after winning the parliamentary seat.

Businessman Richard Jimmy, 54, said incumbent Datuk Darell Leiking had not been present much after winning the seat.

He claimed that people in the district knew of Leiking as an MP who was hard to be found and hard to be seen.

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The Pakatan Harapan candidate from Upko, Datuk Ewon Benedick, has another job as the Kadamaian assemblyman and would most likely have to split his time between two areas if he won, Jimmy added.

Jimmy said Leiking had not really brought change, nor had he helped the people in Penampang especially when floods struck the area repeatedly.

He said Leiking blamed the government but did not come up with immediate solutions to ease the victims’ burden.

He also said Leiking's Parti Warisan, which claims to be a multiracial party, had failed to convince the people who constantly criticised it over the issue of undocumented immigrants or PTI, for "pendatang tanpa izin".

“Ewon on the other hand said he could handle the task of serving Kadamaian in Kota Belud and Penampang’s Moyog and Kapayan state seats.

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"But to the people, this is absolutely impractical and unrealistic. To them, it shows that he is greedy for a position,” Jimmy said.

“Some have argued that since he has an ambition to be MP, why didn’t he just contest the Kota Belud seat which would have made more sense from a logistics perspective?” he asked.

Jimmy said unlike those two leaders, he will be in Penampang constantly and "not go missing" so he could serve the people well.

In addition to Jimmy, Leiking and Benedick, Penampang is also being contested by Kenny Chua of the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) ruling state coalition in the 15th General Election (GE15).