By: Datuk Teddy Chin
(Continued from yesterday)
N17 Darau
This is a 6-cornered fight. The incumbent is Warisan’s Azhar Matussin. He used to be the Assemblyman for neighbouring Karambunai but moved to Darau in 2020 when Darau was carved out from Karambunai.
In 2020, Azhar obtained 5,805 votes. His nearest opponent was BN/Umno’s Jumat Idris who got 5,243 votes. In other words, Azhar’s majority was only 652 votes.
Jumat is brother of Datuk Arshad Idris who is GRS’ candidate in Karambunai this time around.
In other words, the Idris brothers are not to be ignored in the Karambunai, Darau and Sepanggar areas. In 2020, none of the other 4 candidates including PCS’ Ansari Abdullah got more than a few hundred votes.
In this election, Azhar’s greatest challenge is expected to come from GRS’ Datuk Razali Razi @ Bob. A lawyer, Azhar has been preparing for this battle for the last few years and seems welcomed by the villagers he met.
Just like Arshad, he has been doing his homework. Razali is the secretary-general of PGRS and is close to Hajiji. While I am in no position to say who will win, he definitely will give Azhar a run for his money.
N.18 Inanam
This is a 13-cornered fight, one of the most crowded. It is also the 2nd in terms of number of voters, more than 45,000 after Kepayan.
The incumbent is Datuk Peto Galim of PKR. He won it in 2020 in a 10-cornered fight. He got 8,586 votes. His nearest rival, District Chief OKK Datuk William Majinbon of PBS got 2,948 votes. William joined Warisan recently.
Next was former Inanam Assemblyman Datuk Kenny Chua who stood as an Independent. He received 2,346 votes. Though being Independent, he is believed to be backed by Star in the middle of the campaign.
Kenny was elected Inanam Assemblyman in 2018 on a PKR ticket. After the election, he was appointed Assistant Finance Minister as PKR was part of the Warisan+ government.
Former Chief Minister Tan Sri Chong Kah Kiat who stood on a LDP ticket obtained 1,606 votes. All the other candidates got only a few hundred votes each and lost their deposit.
This time around Peto is defending his seat also on a PH-PKR ticket which has a pact with GRS who therefore is not fielding any candidate. One of the only two PKR Assemblymen, he was an Assistant Minister of Agriculture since 2023.
His greatest challenge is expected to come from Warisan’s Edna Jessica Majimbun, William Majmbon’s niece. Edna joined Warisan about a week before her uncle.
Although this is Edna’s debut in an election, she is not someone to be pushed aside. For starters, she is daughter of former SAPP deputy president and former Sepanggar MP Datuk Eric Majimbun.
Experience-wise, she was a KK District Chief (Ketua Daerah) which carries the title OKK, just like her father, her uncles, and her grandfather. And if it matters, she is a former Unduk Ngadau (Kadazan beauty queen), juts like her aunty (William’s wife). It’s Women Power so we cannot write her off just like that.
Before we go to the next strong challenger, Edna’s brother Shone is also in the fray as an Independent. I think he is in the Gelombang Hitam movement led by Kudat MP Verdon Bahanda. Why? Don’t ask me.
Other strong challengers of Peto include Upko’s Datuk Wong Thien Fook. Based in Manggatal (in between Inanam and Telipok), he has been active in local politics in general since PBS time and through Upko in particular. Although he is Chinese, he has Upko’s Kadazandusun votes behind him. Can’t write him off too.
Another former Inanam Assemblyman is also in the fray. He is Datuk Dr Roland Chia who is standing as an Independent. Dr Chia, a dentist, won Inanam in 2013 as a PKR candidate. He defeated Datuk Joseph Paulus Lantip of PBS and Datuk Eric Majimbun of SAPP. He was not nominated by PKR again in 2018.
Since the 2020 election, Dr Roland has been associated with PN-Bersatu and later GRS-PGRS. He became a Political Secretary to the Chief Minister and was chairman of the PGRS Inanam Division. Despite that, he is standing as an Independent against party decision.
Both GRS chairman and PGRS secretary-general have said that disciplinary action will be taken against party members who stood as Independents who included Dr Chia, Maijol Mahap in Bandau and Fairuz Renddan in Pintasan.
So now you have three former Inanam Assemblymen in the fray and they all came from PKR including incumbent Peto, an engineer.
P.172 Kota Kinabalu
N.19 Likas
Likas is on the outskirts of Kota Kinabalu and lies between the city and Inanam. Among its famous landmarks are the All Saints Secondary School which has produced many political leaders including a Chief Minister and a Deputy Chief Minister.
It is also famous for its coastal highway which links the city with Likas Bay which houses the Chief Minister’s office and the iconic Sabah Foundation building and UMS.
The election this time is a 6-cornered fight. The incumbent is Tan Lee Fatt of PH-DAP. He however is not defending his seat and is replaced by his party boss Phoong Jin Zhe, the Sabah DAP chairman who is also known as Ginger.
It could be due to the huge majority of Tan that Ginger Phoong was prompted to move to Likas, sacrificing Tan. It was rumoured that Junz Wong wanted to return to Likas and DAP wanted to take revenge and “finish him off”.
But that didn’t happen as Junz decided to stay in Tanjung Aru. Had Junz moved back to Likas, the Chinese papers would describe it as ‘King Meets King’. Junz is the most senior Chinese leader in Warisan. He won Likas on a DAP ticket in 2013 and moved to Tanjung Aru in 2018 on a Warisan ticket.
The Warisan candidate in Likas instead is Tham Yun Fook, an educationist. Tham used to be the Headmaster of the St Philip Primary School in Tamparuli in the early days of his career.
After Tamparuli, he slowly rose through the ranks in the Education Department in KK; gaining a degree meanwhile. Before he resigned to contest recently, he was the Principal Assistant Director in charge of Chinese schools, the most senior Chinese officer in the Department.
He is banging on his contribution to Chinese education to win votes in Likas but I don’t know if that works as he is new in politics. The Education Department, incidentally, is located in Likas.
There was no Warisan candidate in Likas in 2020 as DAP had a pact with Warisan. In fact, if I am not mistaken, all DAP candidates in Sabah used the Warisan symbol then.
Another candidate in this election if Yong Yit Jee. This attracts attention due to two reasons. First, he is the son of DSP Yong Teck Lee who was Likas Assemblyman from 1985 to 2004. That is almost 20 years. Yong went on to become Chief Minister from 1996 to 1998 under the then BN’s policy of rotation.
The second reason is so Yit Jee is second generation of the Yong family. If he wins, almost another 20 years after the father. However, after Yong Teck Lee, Likas was still in SAPP’s hands as his successor Liew Teck Chan was YB from 2004 to 2013 when he was defeated by DAP’s Junz Wong.
Will Yit Jee, also a lawyer like the father, be able to bring back the ‘Yong Dynasty’ in Likas? We will know soon enough. Reminder: SAPP quit GRS recently and teamed up with Dr Jeffery’s Star.
N.20 Api-Api
This is 5-cornered fight. The incumbent, DSP Christina Liew is not defending her seat which she held since 2013. Her replacement as a PH-PKR candidate is Thonny Chee who was CEO of Sri Pelancongan, a subsidiary of Liew’s Tourism Ministry.
Whether Chee had the blessings of Liew, I don’t know as Liew has not opened her mouth till now. A ‘Sen Kah’ (Soothsayer) told me that Chee could have been the compromise candidate because Liew lost her PKR KK Api-Api chairmanship to her former aide, also a Chinese lady.
Traditionally, the chairman gets a chance to be the candidate but not necessarily so.
Thonny is a Sino-Rungus from northern Sabah. He was the PKR candidate for Kudat in the 2022 MP election but lost. He didn’t lose his deposit though.
I am not sure what he majored in while in university but his qualification and ‘claim’ that he is a lawyer has been a subject which has gone viral in the social media of late.
Contacted by Daily Express, Chee said he would rather not comment on it for the time being. Another thing which seems to work against Chee is his apparent lack of spoken Chinese which made it difficult for him to communicate with Chinese voters in KK.
But Chee has insisted that it is not a problem as he can still communicate in English and Bahasa. He has taken up Chinese lessons.
Besides, Chee seems acceptable to the central PKR leadership including PM Anwar and e that is what matters. Before we leave Api-Api, there is another candidate whom I must mention.
She is Datin Soo Kee Suat @ So Chee Say from the Sarawak-based Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK). In fact, she is the PBK Chairman for Sabah.
Politically, Soo may seem a newcomer. But that is not exactly true. This is because during the Berjaya era in the late 70s and early 80s she was Personal Assistant (PA) at the Berjaya headquarters in Karamunsing. She served among others party president Tan Sri Harris Salleh and late DSP Mohd Noor Mansoor.
When Tan Sri Chong Kah Kiat became Tourism Minister and later Chief Minister, Soo was his Private Secretary. When Soo was at the Berjaya Hqs, Chong was an Assistant Minister to CM Harris.
Soo is the wife of Datuk Ronnie Loh Ee Eng who is PBK candidate in nearby Tanjung Aru. More than that, he is her deputy at the party level.
By the way, for the record in 2020 Christina obtained 7,796 votes to defeat her nearest rival DSP Dr Yee Moh Chai who got 2,449 votes. All the other 7 candidates lost their deposits. They included LDP president Chin Su Phin and former LDP leader Pang Yuk Ming who stood on PCS ticket.
# More tomorrow
