KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Umno Youth has come to the defence of Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi who was accused of lobbying for government positions directly with Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.
The state youth wing leader, Abdul Aziz Julkarnain, said recommendation letters for political appointments were not unusual for parties in an alliance.
Zahid is said to have recommended Sabah Umno chief Bung Mokhtar Radin to be appointed chairman of the Sabah Federal Development Agency; newly-installed Kimanis MP Mohd Alamin as a federal deputy minister; and Umno supreme council member Yakubah Khan as chairman of Labuan port.
“Requests like these are not unusual for parties in cooperation or in direct communication in running the affairs of the country together,” Aziz said.
“The recommendation letter is the right channel for doing so. It is up to the prime minister to consider such recommendations without force and pressure,” he said.
Several PPBM members have criticised the letter including supreme council member Abdul Kadir Jasin who said Zahid’s lobbying showed that Muhyiddin was being bullied by his coalition partners.
Aziz said Zahid should be praised for not asking for a position for himself but instead making recommendations for others.
The letter comes amid speculation that Sabah PPBM chief Hajiji Mohd Noor had been appointed chairman of the Federal Development Agency in Sabah, which coordinates all federal matters related to the state.
The Sabah state government is run by the Warisan-Pakatan Harapan coalition. The two parties form the opposition in Parliament to the federal government run by Perikatan Nasional, a coalition of PPBM, Barisan Nasional, GPS and PAS. - FMT
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