Hajiji hailed as ‘generous’ for bringing Chinese assemblyman into govt

Fui K Soong says the chief minister had no obligation to appoint GRS’s Ben Chong as assistant minister after Chinese voters backed Warisan.

Sabah chief minister Hajiji Noor has named GRS’s Ben Chong an assistant minister in his state Cabinet following the latter’s victory in Tanjong Kapor last Saturday.

PETALING JAYA:

 The co-founder of think tank CENSE has described Hajiji Noor as “generous” for appointing a Chinese assemblyman to his Cabinet despite the community’s strong support for Warisan in the recently concluded state polls.

Fui K Soong, who previously wrote on the voting patterns of Sabah’s Chinese electorate, said Hajiji Noor was under no obligation to appoint Ben Chong as an assistant minister.

The Nov 29 polls saw DAP, a party which previously received strong support from the Chinese community, lose in all eight seats it contested, with Warisan wresting six of the seats it had held.

Chong won the Tanjong Kapor seat with a 359 majority on a GRS ticket in an 11-cornered contest. He is the Tanjong Kapor division chief of Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah (PGRS), a GRS component led by Hajiji.

Fui said Chong was elected with the support of non-Chinese voters, who made up the majority in the constituency.

“So I don’t see why Gabungan Rakyat Sabah would want to reward the Chinese community for that. Chong’s appointment is an olive branch by Hajiji to the Chinese community following their folly in deciding to back Warisan,” she told FMT.

Fui was commenting on criticism levelled at Warisan by Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) president Yong Teck Lee over the lack of Chinese representatives in the Sabah Cabinet.

Yong, according to the Daily Express, blamed Warisan for bringing “the Chinese to the opposition again”.

The former chief minister’s comments prompted Warisan deputy president Darell Leiking to say it was “borderline delusional” for Yong to blame the opposition party for the lack of Chinese representation in Hajiji’s administration.

Leiking, in a Facebook post, said Cabinet composition was the sole prerogative of the chief minister and SAPP should direct its unhappiness at the current state government.

Fui also said she saw Chong’s appointment as a jab at SAPP for quitting GRS ahead of the state polls.

She also said she saw parallels here in the way Sarawak political elites dealt with Sarawak’s Chinese community in the past — by freezing them out and forcing them to survive in a “political wilderness” before they eventually returned to the government fold.

“Taib was merciless in the way he handled the rejection from the Chinese,” she said, referring to Sarawak’ longest serving chief minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud. - FMT