THE departure of 19 state and federal lawmakers from Sabah Bersatu on December 10 has put a spotlight on the four MPs who won the general election on a Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) ticket.
While the four face the possibility of being removed as MPs, many believe that the position of the chief minister held by Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor is also in doubt.
The departure of the former Bersatu men stemmed from GRS’ decision to support the unity federal government led by prime minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
In doing so, they had to abandon Perikatan Nasional (PN), the party they were once aligned with before the outcome of the 15th general election.
Hajiji was the leader of Sabah Bersatu and also GRS, along with SAPP, Sabah Star, PBS and Usno before the exodus.
The anti-party hopping law has not come into effect in Sabah, as the state assembly still needs to adopt the law for it to come into force in the state.
However, Article 6(7) of the Sabah constitution states that the leader of a political party which has won a majority of the elected seats of the assembly shall be the member of the assembly who is likely to command the confidence of the majority of the members of the assembly.
The provisions clearly states “leader of a political party”, while Hajiji does not have a party after his departure from Bersatu.
The first complication arose on December 12, two days after the leaders had “officially” exited Bersatu.
Newly minted Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Sabah & Sarawak Affairs) Datuk Armizan Ali (Papar-GRS) pointed out that the GRS constitution allows direct memberships for individuals and unions between parties.
He said this after his MP position appeared to hang in the balance due to the anti-party hopping law following the exodus on December 10.
A day after Armizan’s statement came out on December 13, former federal law minister, Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, pointed out the four MPs had already resigned in early October.
This was the first backdated response over the status of the former Sabah Bersatu leaders.
Wan Junaidi also claimed the GRS pact with Bersatu ended the same month, before the election took place.
A point to note here is that the Bersatu party constitution includes the automatic revocation of membership when a member decides to join another party.
Consequently, the question on whether the four MPs were still Bersatu leaders when they contested in GE15 has come under scrutiny.
Armizan’s statement that GRS also allows direct membership for individuals may also put Hajiji’s position as the chief minister of Sabah in a safe spot and make it constitutional.
Bersatu president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, in a visit to Sabah on October 12, had told reporters that a Bersatu candidate winning any federal seat will contribute to the party’s seat tally in the general election.
“Basically, it is true, because Bersatu is in GRS, just like how it is in the peninsula.
“If a party uses a different symbol but the candidate concerned comes from that particular party, it would mean that party wins the seat.
“The same will apply in Sabah. If Bersatu contests under the GRS symbol, it will contribute to PN in terms of seats won,” he said after attending a briefing with Sabah Bersatu leaders at the Sabah Bersatu office in Alam Mesra.
Those present when Muhyiddin said this were Hajiji, Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun and other leaders from GRS, namely Sabah Star and SAPP, which were also components of PN at the time.
Then, in GE15, seat distributions between GRS and BN also drew attention to the fact that Bersatu was contesting as part of the GRS alliance.
The following sees the full list of candidates:
Kudat – Ruddy Awah (GRS-Bersatu)
Kota Marudu – Maximus Ongkili (GRS-PBS)
Kota Belud – Abdul Rahman Dahlan (BN-Umno)
Tuaran – Joniston Bangkuai (GRS-PBS)
Sepanggar – Yakub Khan (BN-Umno)
Kota Kinabalu – Yee Tsai Yew (GRS-PBS)
Putatan – Shahelmey Yahya (BN-Umno)
Penampang – Kenny Chua (GRS-STAR)
Papar – Armizan Mohd Ali (GRS-Bersatu)
Kimanis – Mohamad Alamin (BN-Umno)
Beaufort – Siti Aminah Aching (BN-Umno)
Sipitang – Matbali Musah (GRS-Umno)
Ranau – Jonathan Yasin (GRS-Bersatu)
Keningau – Jeffrey Kitingan (GRS-STAR)
Tenom – Jamawi Jaafar (BN-Umno)
Pensiangan – Arthur Joseph Kurup (BN-PBRS)
Libaran – Suhaimi Nasir (BN-Umno)
Batu Sapi – Khairul Firdaus Akhbar Khan (GRS-Bersatu)
Sandakan – Thomas Lau (GRS-SAPP)
Kinabatangan – Bung Moktar Radin (BN-Umno)
Lahad Datu – Maizatul Akmam Alawi (BN-Umno)
Semporna – Nixon Abdul Hadi (GRS-Bersatu)
Tawau – Lo Su Fui (GRS-PBS)
Kalabakan – Aslan Fadli Samsul Alang (BN-Umno)
Yesterday, Sabah's sole PN MP, Datuk Seri Ronald Kiandee, attempted to question the legitimacy of Hajiji as GRS chairman, but received a backdated response.
Kiandee, who is now appointed as the new Sabah Bersatu chief, claimed Hajiji did not have the capacity to represent GRS in signing the MoU following his departure from Bersatu.
Kiandee argued that Bersatu is a valid member of GRS according to Article 6.1(ii) of the coalition’s constitution.
However, today, the GRS supreme council members had apparently decided on December 9 to remove Bersatu from the alliance, but retain Hajiji as its chairman.
The statement came from GRS deputy chairman, Datuk Seri Maximus Ongkili, and was made even before the former Bersatu leaders exited the party on December 10.
There have been many gaps in the responses of the former Sabah Bersatu leaders and GRS, and they raise alarm on whether all of these statements were only half-truths made as they went along.
Concerningly, talking about them may be construed as attempts to question the legitimacy of GRS as co-partners in the ruling federal and state governments.
After all, this is not the first time Sabahans had seen lawmakers abandoning coalitions to keep themselves in power: the mass exodus of Sabah Umno leaders on December 12, 2018, coincidentally also led by Hajiji, was a prime example of this.
So what would become of this political conundrum involving the ex-Sabah Bersatu leaders? As this writer’s former news editor had once said: “Politics is the art of the possible.” – The Vibes, December 19, 2022
Jason Santos is The Vibes’ Sabah bureau head
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