KOTA KINABALU – Sabah representative Norazlinah Arif (Kunak–Gagasan Rakyat) sparked a shouting match during the state assembly’s debate on the anti-party hopping bill when she defended her jump from Warisan to Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah (Gagasan Rakyat) in February.
She said she supported the anti-hopping law, but also called for efforts to study the reasons why elected lawmakers leave their parties, saying she had a strong reason for leaving Warisan and joining Gagasan Rakyat.
“Because there are elected representatives like me who had no choice when the leadership of our party (then Warisan) acted based on lust for power and tried to overthrow the Sabah government and jeopardised the position of the chief minister.
“What choice did we have?” Norazlinah asked.
This sparked anger among Warisan assemblymen, including party president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal who stood up and tried to defend himself, but Norazlinah did not give him a chance to speak.
“Datuk speaker, I do not allow interjection, sorry,” she said, when Shafie asked her to clarify her use of the word “overthrow”.
Shafie said: “(It was) not to overthrow the government, but Umno withdrew support from the government at the time…”, in reference to Sabah Umno’s move to stop supporting Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor’s government in January.
Shafie however did not get to finish his sentence.
Sarifuddin Hata (Merotai-Warisan) also tried to defend his party but was not given space to interrupt.
Norazlinah refused to allow any interjections, adding that “coups” were also a form of betrayal of the people’s mandate.
“I believe that many assemblymen here were like me; they had to leave their party because the party has strayed from its original struggle.
“This issue must be viewed from all perspectives and different sides,” she said.
When Shafie was given a chance to interject later during Assaffal P. Alian’s (Tungku-Warisan) debate, he immediately took Norazlinah to task for accusing Warisan of acting out of “lust for power”.
“We did not act based on lust, we acted based on the Sabah constitution. When BN (Barisan Nasional) withdrew its support for the chief minister (CM) based on Article 6(7), the leader of a party with majority support is to be appointed as the CM, but the CM’s party never contested in the election,” said Shafie.
Formerly with Umno and then Bersatu, Hajiji became president of his current party, Gagasan Rakyat, in February. The party did not contest the Sabah election in 2020. – The Vibes, May 25, 2023
