Sabah UMNO deputy information chief Datuk Ramlee Marhaban, has lambasted a former minister as ungrateful for having turned his back on the party, despite having been elected a party vice-president and given an important portfolio in the cabinet.
Addressing the delegates at the UMNO general assembly Thursday, Ramlee said it was unfortunate that the former minister decided to bite the hand that fed him.
While Ramlee who is the Sabah assistant finance minister, did not name the former UMNO leader, it is believed he was alluding to Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal, who now leads Warisan, a Sabah-based opposition party.
Shafie was UMNO vice-president before he quit the party in July 2016. He was also the rural and regional development minister until July 2015, when he was dropped by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in a cabinet reshuffle that also saw Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin dropped as deputy prime minister and education minister.
“He was given the chance to be a vice-president, a post no Sabahan had held before. If that was not enough, he was then appointed to head a ministry, said Ramlee
“So, he didn’t just bite the hand, he also stabbed the party in the back,” Ramlee told the delegates when debating the UMNO president’s policy speech at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Thursday.
