Sabah PPBM’s ties with Umno stay intact, says Hajiji Noor

 

PPBM’s Hajiji Noor and Umno’s Bung Moktar Radin have pledged to work together in Sabah.

KOTA KINABALU: The PPBM-Umno rift at the federal level will not affect ties between the two parties in Sabah within the ruling Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) coalition, heads of both parties say.

Sabah PPBM chief Hajiji Noor, who is the chief minister, announced the cooperation between the two parties at the state-level will not be affected by political developments in the peninsula while Sabah Umno chief Bung Moktar Radin says the state chapter has the autonomy to decide on any political cooperation.

“Umno at the federal level knows that our resolve is to strengthen the GRS coalition and PPBM will continue to work and cooperate with our partners in Sabah to honour the people’s mandate that put us in power,” he said in a statement here today.

“Now is not the time for political bickering but to get to work. We are faced with a pandemic, economic challenges and difficulties affecting the people. So, let us all not be distracted but work together to surmount these challenges.”

Hajiji’s statement comes after questions surfaced whether the GRS government would remain intact following the widening rift between PPBM and Umno in Kuala Lumpur.

Bung, who is deputy chief minister, told Astro Awani in Kuala Lumpur yesterday that his party would continue working with PPBM through GRS as the state chapter has the autonomy to do so.

Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had sent a letter to prime minister and PPBM president Muhyiddin Yassin saying Umno would not cooperate with the party in GE15. However, it would continue working with the government until Parliament is dissolved.

The Umno Supreme Council had previously said it would finalise its decision on the party’s cooperation with PPBM at its annual general assembly, which has been set for March 27 and 28, after being postponed twice.

Following that, PPBM secretary-general Hamzah Zainudin said the letter from Zahid had serious implications on the future of the cooperation between both parties as well as on the ruling Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition. - FMT