KOTA KINABALU – Former Sabah Barisan Nasional (BN) chief Tan Sri Musa Aman today said the magnitude of last year’s Sabah election result, which saw Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) assuming power, achieved the objective of his suit over the state’s rightful chief minister.
Explaining his move to withdraw the case, he said GRS’ poll victory helped complete his duty to correct injustices meted out to the people and his colleagues after the 14th general election (GE14) in 2018.
Events following GE14 saw Warisan and its Pakatan Harapan allies, who were initially tied with BN, wresting control of the state with Warisan president Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal becoming chief minister. This was made possible as BN component United Progressive Kinabalu Organisation switched sides to support Warisan.
The state BN was deposed and Musa saw the end of his tenure as chief minister, a position he had held since 2003.
In a statement today, Musa said the GRS victory saw a “dark chapter” in the state’s political history come to a close.
“The people of Sabah have received justice and gone through enough,” he said, adding that the state is now facing economic and public health challenges unprecedented in its history since independence.
Musa said that Sabah has now “realigned” itself under the GRS government.
“We now have to give way to enable Sabah to move forward in the right direction. Today, after 34 months of hard-fought political and legal battles, my case is now coming to a close,” he said.
Musa said he had initiated the suit not out of personal vendetta, but out of a sense of duty to correct the wrong done earlier in replacing his government, which he said was validly elected after GE14.
He stressed that his government was legally formed on May 10, 2018, and after the first cabinet meeting was held, but within the next 48 hours he was asked to resign and his government replaced.
“Many do not know that simply asking an elected chief minister to resign without following the proper procedure, as spelled out in our constitution of Sabah, is akin to disrespecting the constitution itself.
“I cannot just obey their wishes knowing that it is wrong to do so. I would be doing great disrespect and breaching the trust placed upon me by my supporters, partners in government and the people of Sabah, who had given all of us a mandate to govern for the next five years,” he said.
Musa also said that the Federal Court in a 34-page majority judgment made on September 1, 2020, had detailed why the case was important not just for Sabah, but for Malaysia as a whole.
The majority of the Federal Court justices had expressly stated that the questions of law raised in the case were of grave constitutional importance and had far-reaching implications, he said. – The Vibes, March 26, 2021
