Sabah BN, Umno withdraw support for Hajiji
Bung Moktar (middle) announced that Umno and BN Sabah pulled back their support against Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor as Sabah Chief Minister during a press conference at Umno Sabah building on Friday evening - photo by Sinar Harian Reporter
Sabah BN chairman, Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin said the decision was taken following Hajiji's actions, which violated the political understanding agreement between Sabah BN and the formation of the state government during the last state election.
"I would like to inform you of some of the latest matters as a result of the current political developments in Sabah. The media has seen some things that have happened that should not have happened.
"Umno Sabah has discussed with our assemblymen and leaders in Sabah, and with that, we have made some decisions.
"First, we have witnessed the establishment of the Sabah government after the last state election, where a coalition was formed between the Sabah BN and the Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), Perikatan Nasional (PN) which comprised Parti Pribumi Bersatu (Bersatu), Parti Solidariti Tanah Airku (Star) and Parti Maju Sabah (SAPP).
"Among other things, the political understanding has stated that the BN assemblymen will give their support and trust to Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor as the Sabah Chief Minister as long as the appointments of ministers and the appointment of the chairman of the state government-owned company chairman are from BN as stated in the political understanding agreement.
"Hajiji has clearly violated the understanding whereby he issued a letter today to terminate the position of Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak as Khazanah Nasional chairman, and he has also threatened us with a cabinet reshuffle without discussion, consultation, and so on.
"So with that, our unanimous decision is that Umno and BN withdraw and pull our support for Hajiji as the chief minister, and we have lost faith after Hajiji left Bersatu," he said in a press conference at the UMNO building here on Friday night.
He also said that the issue was discussed with several lawyers, and the lawyer informed them that Hajiji was no longer qualified to be elected as Sabah Chief Minister.
"So with this, according to Article 6(3) of the Sabah State Constitution, 'command' means the leader who gets the mandate, and secondly, referred to Clause 6(7) the Chief Minister must be elected from a party with a majority, but he does not belong to a party affiliated with the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah ( GRS) where it is just a combination of parties.
"So it means that Hajiji has deceived the Registry of Societies (Ros) into believing that he is a member of the GRS, because of this, we ask the Sabah Speaker to review and also make a decision in relation to this," he explained.
