Ansari, who was on his campaign walkabout in the fishing village, fell several meters into murky seawater just as he was about to step into a villager’s home.
He had been trailing behind Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim who, unlike him, made it without getting himself wet.
As he stepped onto the rickety platform leading into the house, Khalid told the others who were following behind him to stand back and wait for Ansari to cross.
“Cukup, cukup, cukup (enough, enough, enough),” Khalid told the men, noticing that the two-meter wide bridge was shaky.
Despite this, the three men followed Ansari and the platform gave way, taking all four men down together.
Ansari, in his attempt to break his fall, managed to cling on to the wooden platform’s edge before tumbling into the water.
He was later rescued by villagers who used a ladder to help him climb to safety. Ansari, clearly shaken, left the village shortly after the incident for a medical check-up.
“I am fine but it is just for precaution,” he told The Malaysian Insider after his fall.
He added that this was proof of the decrepit conditions of Batu Sapi villages.
“Their walk to their home daily is like a walk through a field of land mines,” he said.
The traumatised-looking Ansari added that the incident should not have happened and insisted that it was not merely a campaign gimmick on his part to appeal for sympathy votes.
“You saw what happened. It was nothing to do with me. Like before, I walked on the platform and someone else followed, causing it to fall. I guess it is in the hands of God,” he said, before he was whisked off to see a doctor.
Seri Setia assemblyman Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad told The Malaysian Insider later that Ansari had suffered chest pains and a minor knee injury from the incident.
He said another man who fell with him, Selangor PKR election director Zakaria Rahim also suffered some minor bruises.
“I think it is unfortunate that some people are saying that this is a gimmick by us. You were there, you saw what happened, so unless we unscrewed the planks holding the platform up, it is impossible that we had something to do with this,” he said.
He echoed Ansari’s view that the incident was proof of the living conditions of Batu Sapi folk.
“This is what the residents have to endure everyday. No doubt, they are used to it, but it does not make it any less bad,” he said.
Nik Nazmi added that it further highlighted PKR’s theme in the campaign that there was a desperate need for a change in government, not just in Sabah but in the whole country.
“Unlike in other places where the states are rich and the people are rich, the Sabah state is rich but the people are poor.
“The disparity is very huge and it highlights the fact that they need a stronger voice for them and a change of government in Sabah as well as in Putrajaya so that they can have renewed hope for a better life,” he said.
Two days ago, Ansari took his first tumble when he was visiting Api-Api island off the coast of Sandakan.
During that incident, Ansari fell after a wooden platform attached to the jetty gave way and collapsed into the sea.
Ansari is facing Barisan Nasional’s Datin Linda Tsen Thau Lin and Sabah Progressive Party’s (SAPP) Datuk Yong Teck Lee in the contest for Batu Sapi in Sabah.
The seat fell vacant when Tsen’s late husband, Datuk Edmund Chong Ket Wah who was the constituency’s two-term MP, died in a tragic biking accident on October 9.
