Sabah PKR chief caught off guard by DAP’s MoU snub

 

Sabah PKR leader Christina Liew said she was surprised by the announcement from her DAP counterpart Phoong Jin Zhe.

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah PKR chief Christina Liew is surprised with the move by the state DAP to back out from the proposed state-level memorandum of understanding with the state government.

Liew, who is also state Pakatan Harapan (PH) chief, said she and Sabah PH secretary Mustapha Sakmud were not aware of DAP’s decision to abandon the MoU, known as the Sabah Reform Agenda.

“I cannot answer this because I don’t know about this,” she told reporters who asked her about the latest development after a party function in Penampang near here today.

“Actually, I’m quite surprised. But I will find out more, I will call them later.”

This is, however, contrary to what Sabah DAP secretary Phoong Jin Zhe said earlier today when he announced the party’s decision.

Phoong had said that DAP had informed Sabah PH of its decision to back out from the SRA.

The Luyang state representative said the decision to pull out from the SRA was unanimously agreed by the state DAP council two weeks ago.

He said Sabah DAP felt that there was no necessity to have any kind of agreement with the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) government because the coalition already enjoyed a secure majority in the state assembly.

He also denied previous media reports over DAP pushing for the reform agenda, saying the party was not the one that initiated talks with GRS.

Sabah DAP was originally part of the state PH entourage that presented the seven-point reform agenda to chief minister Hajiji Noor on Nov 15.

Liew, a former deputy chief minister, however, said today that DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng had initially met with Hajiji and Sabah opposition leader Shafie Apdal to talk about the possibility of the state-level MoU.

Although Shafie was reported to have declined the offer, Liew said the response from Hajiji was “positive”. - FMT