Bersatu trying to limit Umno’s influence in Sabah, says analyst

 

Umno’s Bung Moktar Radin has slammed Sabah’s finance ministry, led by Bersatu’s Hajiji Noor, over the decision to remove JKR’s authority on roads in the state.

KOTA KINABALU: An analyst sees the Sabah government’s decision to transfer powers to supervise roads from the public works department (JKR) to the state finance ministry as a politically motivated move aimed at limiting Umno’s influence in the state.

This comes after state Umno chief and deputy chief minister Bung Moktar Radin slammed the Sabah finance ministry over the move, saying it was very strange when the ministry did not have engineers, unlike JKR.

Awang Azman Pawi of Universiti Malaya (UM) pointed out that the finance ministry was headed by key Bersatu leaders, namely chief minister Hajiji Noor and Masidi Manjun.

“This move will definitely be seen as an attempt to keep Umno’s influence from growing bigger because roads are one of the sources of income for various contractors in Sabah.

“This will impact the political situation in Sabah with Umno and Bersatu’s relationship potentially becoming more cold and tense,” he told FMT.

Meanwhile, Romzi Ationg of Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) said Bung’s strong and open rebuke of the state finance ministry would have a big impact on the people’s perception of the state government.

He said that Sabahans would take it as a sign of existing conflict between government leaders which could lead to a decline in public confidence in the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) administration if not handled well.

“Such open criticism gives off a negative perception to the people and also supporters of both parties, so this could affect Umno and Bersatu’s relationship.”

Bung, who is also state works minister, yesterday said he was dissatisfied with the finance ministry’s actions over the awarding of road upgrading works to city and district councils.

He said that in 2016, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) asked the Sabah finance ministry to hand over engineering and technical supervision to JKR as it was the relevant department to handle such matters.

“Unfortunately, the Sabah finance ministry also issued a letter on the 28th or 29th of last month withdrawing all of JKR’s powers and transferring them to the finance minister to supervise these roads,” he said. - FMT