Sabah politicians support ban proposal for Dr Akmal

KOTA KINABALU: Politicians in Sabah are supporting calls to ban Umno Youth chief Dr Muhamad Akmal Saleh from entering Sabah.

Former foreign minister Tan Sri Anifah Aman and Parti Bersatu Sabah youth chief Christoper Mandut said in separate statements that the state did not welcome unnecessary tension.

Anifah said Dr Muhammad Akmal’s behaviour on the socks issue was disgraceful, and added that it would be a good idea not to tolerate people who can cause racial disunity.

Meanwhile, Mandut said that such politicking is not welcome in Sabah.

“We do not want their kind of politicking to come to Sabah. What happens in the peninsula stays there,” he said, commenting on Dr Akmal’s presence in Sabah on Friday (April 5).

He was just grateful that no untoward incident happened while Dr Akmal was around, especially since he was picked up by police at the Kota Kinabalu International Airport upon arrival.

“I think the police chose to take down his (Dr Akmal) statement because the authorities were confident that no possible riot would happen in the state,” he said, adding that Sabahans are generally calm and tolerant people, and rioting was not actually a practice in the state.

Dr Akmal was on a one-day visit to Sabah to attend Iftar Ramadan with Sabah Umno Youth leaders in Beaufort, some 100km from here, before flying back to Kuala Lumpur on Saturday (April 6).

While there, he was called to give his statement over a sedition probe of a speech he gave in Kelantan, twice, the first was at 10.30am, lasting for about 90 minutes, and the second was at 12.30pm, where he was interrogated for about two hours.

A handful of Sabah Umno youth leaders were present and waited for him outside the police station.

He later told reporters that he had given his full cooperation and that the police had handled the interrogation professionally.