Chin Su Phin
KOTA KINABALU: Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is working its way to return to mainstream politics, said its president, Datuk Chin Su Phin.
Although the party has yet to be accepted as a component party of Perikatan Nasional (PN), Chin said LDP has good rapport with the present Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) state government.
He said LDP has previously announced its intention to return to the national mainstream politics and has applied to join the PN coalition.
“Even though we have not officially joined PN, we have good cooperation with GRS,” he said on Wednesday.
On the current political turmoil in West Malaysia, Chin said some Umno leaders were hoping to seize power during the upheaval to wriggle out of their court charges, whereas the opposition wished to form another backdoor government.
However, he opined that it would be tough for Umno or the opposition bloc to seize power amid the political chaos because Umno would not possibly work with the opposition to topple the government.
“Even if they manage to work together, they will not be able to improve the Covid-19 situation in Malaysia.”
Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, he said Umno and the opposition bloc had never cooperated or worked with the government to curb the spread of the virus.
“They are fighting over politics every single day. And the ones who suffer are healthcare workers and the people.”
Since Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has indicated that the Parliament would be dissolved to pave the way for general election once the country has reached a certain Covid-19 vaccination threshold, Chin said the people should wait for the moment to elect a new government.
On another note, Chin said LDP was undertaking a revamp of its leadership to allow young bloods to take over 90 per cent of the divisional and central leadership posts.
He said majority of the incumbent divisional chairmen were willing to step down from their posts to make way for new leaders, in effort to rejuvenate the party.
Chin said he had been working on incorporating more young leaders into the leadership since the party election last year.
Presently, he said 70 to 80 per cent of the party leaders were new faces.
“We hope to further achieve having 90 per cent new faces or young leaders at the divisional and central levels in the party election this year.”
He said eight out of the 28 divisions have held their annual general meeting (AGM) and election to date, and each of the divisions was helmed by new leadership, including Chin’s Api-Api division, which is now chaired by Sim Fui.
Chin expected all 28 divisions to hold their AGM and election by September, whereas the central delegates conference and election was scheduled to be held in October or November this year.
Although the party had lost in the 2018 general election and the 2020 Sabah state election, he was heartened to know that many young professionals, especially in the west coast region, have joined LDP to pursue its political struggles.
He thanked the party leaders and members for their perseverance and faith in LDP.