Sabah PAS secretary appointed as assemblyperson

 

PAS finally has a representative in the Sabah legislature after its state secretary Aliakbar Gulasan was appointed as an assemblyperson.

He was sworn in today together with at least three others, namely Umno's Suhaimi Nasir and Raimie Unggi, and Bersatu’s Jaffari Walliam

Former chief minister Yong Teck Lee and Bersatu's Amisah Yassin were also reportedly on the list to be appointed.

If appointed, Amisah would be the only woman to be appointed despite calls for greater women representation in the state assembly.

The Sabah state assembly has 73 elected representatives. The state constitution, however, allows the chief minister to appoint six more nominated assemblypersons - who have full voting powers.

In a tweet, PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang thanked Sabah chief minister Hajiji Noor and Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin for appointing Aliakbar.

"PAS believes this inaugural appointment as opening a new chapter for Sabah PAS to have better ties with Sabah's multiracial multiethnic community," Hadi said.

Previously, Aliakbar had, during the PAS Muktamar last month, appealed to his central party leaders to watch their words so as not to offend East Malaysians.

He said while certain statements may be acceptable in some states in Peninsular Malaysia, the same cannot be said about Sabah and Sarawak.

"We in Sabah and Sarawak face a multiracial society. Certain language may be appropriate in Terengganu, Kelantan or Kedah but they are very inappropriate for Sabah and Sarawak.

"They could incite sentiment and cause conflict; we (Sabah PAS) have to face them. I would like to emphasise this," he said.

Aliakbar did not elaborate in what way PAS central leaders had offended East Malaysians, but PAS' religious scholar wing chief Nik Muhammad Zawawi Salleh had on Aug 26 claimed that the Bible was "distorted" while debating in the Dewan Rakyat, causing widespread ire among Christians.

Earlier this week, the Sabah Council of Churches had cited Zawawi's remarks in a letter they wrote to Sabah deputy chief minister Jeffrey Kitingan, in urging him to oppose a PAS appointment to the state legislature.

PBS - which is an ally in the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah state government - had also objected to appointing PAS to the state legislature, saying the latter did not merit consideration as they did not contest in the Sabah election.

Meanwhile of the other appointed representatives, Umno's Suhaimi had narrowly lost the Gum-Gum seat by 296 votes, while Raimie ranked third in the race for Kemabong.

Bersatu's Jaffari was previously an appointed assemblyperson from PKR who later defected and backed a bid to support Musa Aman as chief minister - which led to snap polls.

Amisah, meanwhile, is the Sabah Bersatu deputy women's chief. - Mkini