Sabah Umno will give a special prize to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak at the 14th general election (GE14) by ensuring that the “land below the wind” remains as a “fixed deposit” for Barisan Nasional (BN).
Umno treasurer and Sabah Umno Liaison deputy chairman Salleh Said Keruak said it was a manifestation of the gratitude shown by thousands of people in the state who had been enjoying various aid and development since Umno set foot in Sabah about 24 years ago.
"To me, Chief Minister Musa Aman with the cooperation of everyone, is not only capable of retaining the constituencies which we won but also wrest back those that we lost,” he said when met by reporters after feting Sabah Umno delegates attending the Umno general assembly in Kuala Lumpur today.
Earlier, when opening the 2017 Umno general assembly, Najib also touched on matters of interest to Sabah and Sarawak besides emphasising that the federal government would proceed with the Pan Borneo Highway project which would bring benefits to the people, especially those in the two states.
In this context, Salleh said what was most important now was that every Umno member and machinery must be strongly united and parry efforts by certain groups who had defected from the party.
"This is because they (the defectors) only brought along their sentiments, their objective is not to bring development to Sabah because only Umno and the BN are capable of shouldering this responsibility.
“In fact in his speech, the Prime Minister also said only the BN can unite the people and take the nation to greater heights,” he said.
Meanwhile, Salleh who is also communications and multimedia minister said the responsibility to ward off the slanders hurled at the party on the social media not only rested on certain individuals but must also be borne by every Umno member.
"Umno members must be responsible in fighting the slanders or ‘fake news’ because everyone of us have our own gazette and we should use them to fight the slanders,” he said.
He said there were, of course, certain laws that could be initiated against those abusing the social media and if there were individuals who felt that they had been abused, they were responsible to lodge reports to the police or the Communications and Multimedia Commission.
- Bernama