FORMER Sabah Bersatu secretary Abdul Kadir Abdullah Damsal, announced on Monday that he has officially resigned from the party.

Abdul Kadir revealed his decision to return to Umno, a party he has been a member of since October 1994.

He said his intention to return to the party was motivated by the statement of Sabah Umno treasurer and election director Datuk Seri Salleh Tun Said who had urged former party members to make a comeback and throw their support to the party in the coming state election to ensure that Umno will become a dominant political force again.

Abdul Kadir said the other reason that motivated him to return was his belief that Umno has a proven track record in politics and governance.

“By this, I mean that Umno both at Federal and State level, has the extensive experience in government and its substantial performance over the years speaks for itself. “At state level, where Umno made its presence over 30 years has seen the tremendous physical achievement and development especially the last 14 years under the leadership of Tun Musa (Aman) as the Chief Minister then.

“The other factor is the sustainability and the political stability. And this is the tipping point for me to seriously consider returning to the party,” he said.

Having been with the state government for most part of his career of which he was the CEO of three different government-linked companies (GLCs), Abdul Kadir said that he understands the importance of political stability in ensuring that Sabah will see real economic development and progress that will benefit the people.

“It was only under Umno-BN state government that Sabahans saw the political stability and the progress made in its stride,” he said.

He pointed out that the establishment of University Malaysia Sabah (UMS), Kota Kinabalu Industrial Park (KKIP) and the modernization of Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) were among the key strategic development initiatives implemented by the Umno-BN led state government.

“This trend of physical development takes a steroid-type pace of development when Musa took over as Chief Minister.

“Amongst his most distinctive achievements during his tenure as Chief Minister were the construction of the majestic Menara Kinabalu, the popular SICC and the establishment of SEDIA to coordinate the federal and state economic incentives.

“He also championed education by establishing education hub in Sandakan, the presence of five MRSM throughout Sabah during his time as Chief Minister,” he said, adding that the establishment of University College of Sabah Foundation (UCSF) also took place during BN’s time in 2015.

Abdul Kadir further pointed out that it was also during Musa’s BN leadership that Sabah saw the massive onshore investment of Petronas totalling about RM50 billion which created economic spill over in terms of job creation and business opportunities for local Sabahan companies in the oil, gas and energy sector. ”Sipitang Oil & Gas Industrial Park (SOGIP) was created to cater for the construction of multi-billion-dollar Petronas Ammonia-Urea Plant (SAMUR). This was made possible with the laying of Sabah-Sarawak Gas Pipeline (SSGP) distributing gas from Sabah Oil & Gas Terminal (SOGT) in Kimanis. With natural gas available onshore, the shortage of power supplies was made good by the Kimanis Power Plant (KPP) that generated additional 300MW to the state power grid,” Abdul Kadir added.

On the economic front, he said unemployment was only hovering between 4.7-5.7% as compared to more than 7% for the past five years, while development gap between other states in Malaysia had been narrowing as Sabah’s GDP was the highest in Malaysia by 2017 at 8.1%. Over the past five years GDP growth in Sabah had been in averaging at less than 3%.

“All these are undisputable facts.

“For this, I believe Umno-led BN government in the state has what it takes to replicate these successes and certainly do better and with greater impact for Sabah and the people. Umno has what I called ‘EPS Success Factors’ that is it has the experience, the ability to perform and the sustainability to be around as a dominant force.

“The rakyat could not afford to ignore these undeniable facts,” Abdul Kadir said.