Mujie's Political Misadventure With DAP
By Emin Madihttp://www.bernama.com/bernama/v7/ge/newsperspectives.php?id=943350
KOTA KINABALU (Bernama) -- People say, in politics, performance speaks louder than merely providing lip service.
That seems to be the case for Edward Ewol Mujie, 65, who admitted to have gone through difficult and challenging time promoting DAP's cause for six years despite becoming its vice-chairman for Sabah.
On April 11, Mujie decided to quit the peninsular-based opposition party and joined United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko), a Barisan Nasional (BN) component party in Sabah.
His brave action spelled further trouble for DAP because a week earlier, Kepayan DAP chief, Stephen Jimbangan, together with 128 supporters deserted the opposition party to join Upko.
The former secretary of the Kota Kinabalu Municipal Council (now KK City Council) said he failed to live up to his expectation to become an effective people's voice through the DAP, especially in championing the cause of the Kadazan-Dusun-Murut interests.
It was Mujie's explicit admission that as an opposition leader there was nothing much he could do to match the BN leaders' hands-on performance, especially in terms of bringing socio-economic changes to the people, particularly in the rural areas where the majority are Kadazan, dusun and muruts.
"Unlike the BN, I find it difficult for DAP to accommodate my vision to provide meaningful services to the people, especially to the kadazan, dusun and murut communities.
"In the beginning, I saw DAP as a fitting political platform to voice out the people's problems and grievances.
"But it turned out that I was actually facing a "handicapped" situation because of limited programmes and activities, even moving around the state to promote DAP's case was difficult," he told Bernama.
The former Sabah College student said he also felt being "left out' in DAP's "touch and go" style of politics.
"Of course, DAP's top leaders occasionally come to visit Sabah, but there was hardly any real interaction between the party's national and local leaders," he said.
Because of that, DAP's efforts to make inroads into the kadasan, dusun and murut communities in Sabah was unsuccessful and the resignation of its senior members like Mujie and Stephen was a severe blow to the peninsular-based party.
Mujie contested the Sepanggar parliamentary seat on a DAP ticket in the 2008 general election but lost to BN candidate, Eric E. Majimbun.
The BN aspirant for the seat in the May 5 general election is Datuk Jumat Idris.
On why he chose UPKO, Mujie said the party was a BN component that also gave particular attention to Kadazan, dusun and muruts' interests.
Mujie praised Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan, Tan Sri Bernard Dompok and Tan Sri Joseph Kurup, who are PBS, Upko and PBRS presidents, respectively, for bringing the kadazan, dusun and muruts closer together under the "Gelombang Tataba" (sustenance wave) initiative.
"I was very attracted with this sort of vision. So, I was thinking rather than spending my energy and time with the DAP, I could probably contribute some service to the kadazan, dusun and muruts, especially the younger generation," said Mujie, who is a dusun lotud from Batangan village in Tuaran.
"I did not ask for anything (any position in Upko). The important thing is what would be my contribution to the party and in particular to the kadazan, dusun and murut communities.
"I hope the Gelombang Tataba could bring about greater unity among the communities so that they could play a bigger role in nation-building," he said.
On Sabah for Sabahans rhetoric, Mujie said: "Whether we like it or not, the people in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak are all Malaysians.
"That's the reality and we must accept the reality for as long as we consider ourselves as true Malaysians."
-- BERNAMA
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