KOTA KINABALU – Sabah Bersatu chief Datuk Seri Hajiji Mohd Noor was today sworn in as the state’s 16th chief minister at 10.40am.
This comes after the state election on Saturday that saw the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah alliance of Perikatan Nasional, Barisan Nasional and Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) winning with a simple majority.
Hajiji’s deputies are Umno’s Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin, Datuk Jeffrey Kitingan (Sabah Star) and Datuk Joachim Gunsalam (PBS).
Bung Moktar is also state local government and housing minister, Jeffrey (agriculture and fisheries) and Joachim (industrial development).
Meanwhile, Karanaan rep Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun and Tamparuli’s Datuk Jahid Jahim have been made state senior ministers, holding the public works and rural development portfolios, respectively.
Sabah PN chairman Hajiji is known to be a reserved, but firm leader.
The Tuaran native, 65, made his political debut in 1990 as United Sabah National Organisation’s (Usno) Sulaman assemblyman, and was among a group of young leaders trying to topple the then ruling PBS government.
On the advice of then prime minister and Umno president Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Usno was dissolved in 1991 to make way for the BN lynchpin to enter Sabah.
Following this, Hajiji and other Usno members joined Umno.
In 1994, he became assistant state youth and sports minister. He also served in the state Industrial Development and Finance Ministries.
In 2004, he was made state local government and housing minister in chief minister Tan Sri Musa Aman’s administration.
Hajiji led an exodus out of Sabah Umno in December 2017, with Masidi among the group.
They later joined Bersatu, whose state chapter was launched on April 1 the following year, shortly before the 14th general election.
Born to a family of farmers and fishermen, Hajiji, who is the second of three siblings, demonstrated early on his public-speaking skills.
He worked as a radio presenter in 1976, a job he held for a year, before moving on to serve the public as Tuaran’s assistant development officer.
Between 1986 and 1990, he was a Customs Department enforcement officer, after which he made the leap into politics.
He and his wife, Datin Seri Juliah Salag, have four children. – The Vibes, September 29, 2020
