From Sandakan to Batu Sapi and vice versa

Democratic Action Party (DAP) appointed Vivian Wong to contest for the Sandakan by-election on May 11. She is the daughter of the late Wong Tien Fatt, who was Sandakan’s previous parliamentary member.

According to the past general elections’ results, Wong Tien Fatt took over the Sandakan seat from Liew Vui Keong in GE-13, with the majority of 1,088 votes.

However, both did not have a rematch in GE-14. This was because Liew switched from Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to Warisan.

Instead, Liew contested for the Batu Sapi parliamentary seat and defeated its incumbent Linda Tsen Thau Lin. Consequently, he was appointed as Legal Affairs Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department.

Today, Tsen will be representing United Sabah Party (PBS) for the Sandakan by-election.

Ironically, Liew is supporting the daughter of his former rival. During his visit to Sandakan, he said that he defeated Tsen at Batu Sapi and now she is contesting for Sandakan. It is another ironic moment as the Legal Affairs Minister switched to Batu Sapi after he was defeated by Wong Tien Fatt.

Also, Warisan is an allied party to Pakatan Harapan. Hence, Liew will just be splitting the votes if he contested for Sandakan in GE-14.

Nevertheless, Liew is not active in campaigning for Vivian despite being a two-term MP of Sandakan. On the other hand, Warisan president Shafie Apdal was outspoken in supporting DAP for the upcoming by-election. He took the third position (277 statements) in the influencers list of Sandakan by-election, but he is not far behind Lim Kit Siang (285 statements) and Lim Guan Eng (280 statements).

It is obvious that Shafie is using his influence as the Chief Minister of Sabah to campaign for Vivian. But why is Liew not doing the same thing for Vivian by using his past contributions to the district?