The second-half of game yet to begin, Warisan warns federal coalition

Warisan Youth chief Mohd Azis Jamman says his party is not afraid of the coalition of newly-installed Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

KOTA KINABALU: In his latest salvo against Umno, Warisan Youth chief Mohd Azis Jamman today said his party is not afraid of the coalition of newly-installed Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

Saying the yet-to-be-established federal government led by Muhyiddin would be fragile as it did not have enough support from MPs, Azis warned that the second half of the “football match” had yet to begin.

He noted that Muhyiddin’s strength had yet to be tested in Parliament.

Pakatan Harapan and Warisan MPs are expected to call for a vote of no confidence against Muhyiddin at the next sitting of Parliament.

“At this point, Muhyiddin, who does not have enough MPs to form the majority, might think twice before disturbing Mohd Shafie Apdal (the chief minister) in Sabah.

“If PH can be easily ousted from the federal government even though it had enough majority, what more a leader who does not have majority support?

“This is only the half time of a football match. Let’s see what happens in the second half, when the MPs gather in Parliament,” he said.

Azis said this in response to Sabah Umno Youth chief Abdul Aziz Julkarnain urging Umno leaders to oppose any cooperation with Warisan, Pakatan Harapan and Upko in Sabah.

The Umno leader said he had heard talk of Warisan wanting to join Muhyiddin’s coalition, known as Perikatan Nasional, and told the Sabah-based party to forget such a notion.

In reply, Azis said Warisan leaders had principles and dignity and had gone through numerous tribulations before forming the state government.

“Don’t think Warisan is any random party; our leaders are street fighters. Previously, we had gone against the federal and state governments. What makes you think that we will not be safe? Warisan is still the state government,” he said here today.

Azis said Sabah Umno youth leaders could not wait to be in power again as they could not stand being in the opposition and were, therefore, playing the “game of perception”.

Sabah Umno communications chief Ghazalie Ansing claimed this evening that Azis could not accept that the Warisan-led government was an illegally formed administration.

Ghazalie, who is also Tawau Umno chief, said Azis’ contention, that the power shift from Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) to Barisan Nasional in 1994 was similar to Warisan’s case following the May 2018 general election, did not hold water.

He said the difference between the two scenarios was that then PBS president Joseph Pairin Kitingan stepped down as chief minister after conceding BN had obtained the majority following defections of several of his assemblymen to the coalition.

“Under the country’s democratic system, it was the right thing for Pairin to do because a new chief minister needed to be appointed, which was Sakaran Dandai.

“This was unlike what happened with Warisan two years ago. Musa Aman had yet to resign but (Warisan president) Shafie Apdal together with his party had approached the Sabah governor to be named as the Sabah CM,” he said.

This triggered a political crisis, Ghazalie said, with Musa being” first and legally appointed” as chief minister and Shafie being appointed later.

“That appointment means the Warisan-led government now is invalid. This case (Musa vs Shafie) will be heard in the Federal Court not long from now,” he said, in a response to a report in FMT yesterday. - FMT