As the tussle over Sabah’s new cabinet composition intensifies, there are concerns that Putrajaya may be affected by the ripple effect of what is happening in the state.
As embattled Chief Minister Hajiji Noor (above) attempts to prove that he has majority support to remain in power, sources say Warisan has also made offers of positions in the state’s cabinet to Pakatan Harapan in order to gain power.
However, two sources from Pakatan Harapan familiar with this matter said the coalition has no intention of accepting any offers from Warisan due to concerns about how this would reflect on the federal government.
“Of course, (Warisan president) Shafie Apdal is our friend too, so he is trying very hard to lobby us.
“But it’s not the question of who you want to propose to become the new chief minister. It’s the issue of why should we do this now.
“After we formed the unity government at the federal level, and we tell everyone we want to work together to preserve the stability of the country, then you want to do this thing?
“It is something that does not reflect our narrative. How can we agree with such a move? That is why our friend Warisan, no matter what they offer us, (we will not accept),” said one of the sources to Malaysiakini today.
Describing the current situation as an internal family argument, the source pointed out that all the parties involved in the Sabah political crisis are partners at the federal level.
Not only that, the source pointed out that Harapan has consistently criticised the infamous Sheraton Move which saw the then administration fall after Bersatu and several PKR MPs withdrew their support en masse.
“We used to criticise the Sheraton Move and now we are doing this? Cannot, lah,” the source said.
This source added that Harapan would prefer to maintain Hajiji as the Sabah chief minister until the end of his term.
Meanwhile, a second source from Harapan claimed that Warisan specifically offered four ministerial, two deputy ministerial and one deputy chief ministerial positions to the coalition, which rejected the offer.
This source told Malaysiakini one of the reasons why Harapan is not interested in Warisan’s offer is that there are concerns the composition of the federal government may be affected.
For the record, Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) as led by Hajiji has six MPs while Warisan has three lawmakers in Parliament.
However, when contacted by Malaysiakini, Warisan secretary-general Loretto Padua Jr said such speculation of offers made were “not right” and “not discussed at all”.
The second source also claimed that Hajiji had offered two ministerial positions to Harapan – one to Sabah DAP chief Frankie Poon and one to Sabah PKR chief Christina Liew.
Poon told Malaysiakini he does not know anything about this while attempts to contact Liew have yet to be successful.
The other source did not confirm nor deny this detail but merely said it would be “logical” to give one position to DAP and one to PKR once Harapan is included in the new Sabah cabinet.
There is another option to resolve the political turmoil in Sabah right now, which would be to trigger a state election and start with a blank slate.
But both sources say a state election in Sabah is something Harapan would like to avoid right now.
“If, let’s say, we let the Sabah (state legislative assembly) dissolve, then people will say, why not we let the Election Commission save money and do the same thing to the six other states at the same time also?
“(That means) we are asking for an early election. In my personal view, we should have state elections half a year after a general election,” one of the sources said.
The six states the source was referring to are Kedah, Kelantan, Terengganu, Penang, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan, which did not participate in the GE15, and will see the terms of their current state governments expire in the middle of this year.
Harapan had also previously stated that it wants to wait till the end of the term before going for elections in the states they control, which are Penang, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan.
The source said the majority of the people are also not interested in going for another polling so soon after the general election and in the midst of the upcoming Chinese New Year celebrations.
"The public sentiment on the ground does not welcome this move,” the source said.
Meanwhile, the other source said Harapan’s reluctance to trigger a state election in Sabah right now is because the federal government led by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is still too new.
“They (Harapan) lack the confidence that a Warisan and Harapan combination can win in the state election,” the source said.
It was learnt that both Anwar and Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi will be arriving in Kota Kinabalu tonight and a resolution is expected to be reached hopefully by tomorrow.
The Sabah political turmoil started after the state BN – which has 17 seats – withdrew its support for Hajiji, as announced by Sabah BN chief Bung Moktar Radin on Jan 6.
However, five BN assemblypersons rebelled against Bung and continued to pledge their support for Hajiji as chief minister.
Hajiji has since claimed to have the support of 44 Sabah state assemblypersons, among them from GRS, Harapan and BN, and therefore the Sabah government is still intact and he is still the chief minister. - Mkini
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