Najib, Muhyiddin duke it out over Sabah CM choice, state polls 

KUALA LUMPUR – Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak of Umno has taken Bersatu president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to task for claiming that he had waited for Umno to name its choice for Sabah chief minister in 2020 before selecting someone from his own party for the post.

In a Facebook post at around midnight, Najib pointed to a news report on September 12, 2020 – the day of nominations for the Sabah election which also marked the start of the campaign period. According to the report’s headline, Muhyiddin had indicated then that Bersatu’s Datuk Seri Hajiji Mohd Noor would be the chief minister.

Najib, thus, mocked Muhyiddin over his assertion that he had waited till the end of the campaign period for Umno to name its choice. 

“From early on he had already planned – and not when the campaign period ended as he stated just now,” Najib said in response to a social media posting by Muhyiddin.

Earlier, the Bersatu president had defended the appointment of a chief minister from Bersatu in Sabah. He claimed that he had already indicated to Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi before polling happened to name his party’s choice for chief minister.

“But Zahid did not name anyone until the Sabah election campaign period was over. Did I betray Umno? I did not. I had informed Umno to name their choice. If Umno did not have, then I had my own candidate I wished to push forward. I had always been straight and direct with Umno.

“This was why I had named Hajiji a chief minister if PN (Perikatan Nasional) won the most seats among the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah alliance,” he said.

In the election on September 26, 2020, PN that was led by Bersatu won 17 seats, while Barisan Nasional (BN) led by Umno garnered 14 seats and PBS got seven seats. The three went on to form the state government under an alliance named Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) with Hajiji as chief minister.

Muhyiddin also stressed that Bersatu will not join Muafakat Nasional (MN) so as not to get itself entangled with the moral issues that are plaguing Umno leaders. He said he had forgotten about joining the alliance, which was established by PAS and Umno, as the latter had already decided not to work with his party.

“There’s no reason to bring this up anymore. Umno has decided not to work with Bersatu during its general assembly. So why bring it up again?”

The PN chairman had posted this in a direct swipe against Najib. He referred to Najib’s earlier social media posting blaming Bersatu over M’’s failure during the Sabah election in September 2020.

“The fact remains that in none of the seats had Bersatu run against Umno during the Sabah election.

“As Bersatu and PN president, I had chaired several meetings attended by our coalition, BN and PBS leaders to determine the seat distribution during the Sabah election and told the components not to contest head-on with each other,” he said.

Muhyiddin said he had also instructed Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin as PN secretary-general to form a committee on the seat distribution among them.

“I was informed at the early stage that the distribution of seats was already made. But BN decided to add more seats to those they wished to contest and this had caused direct contests among parties for several seats,” said Muhyiddin.

He stressed that the fray also involved Sabah Star and covered several seats involving BN and PBS, but Bersatu stayed clear.

Responding to this, Najib said the constituencies where Bersatu won were those where Umno traditionally enjoyed support. “Many (Bersatu) candidates were frogs who had jumped from Umno,” he added.

He said Umno was told to hand over the seats to Bersatu and to campaign for them there.

“Umno won 14 seats. Bersatu won 11 seats,” Najib said. “But Bersatu assumed the Sabah chief ministership.” – The Vibes, February 4, 2022