KOTA KINABALU – Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) has decided to retain Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor as its chairman and dropped Bersatu as its component party, the alliance’s deputy chairman Datuk Seri Maximus Ongkili said today.
He said a December 9 GRS supreme council meeting had decided to remove the party and retain Hajiji, who is Sabah chief minister, as its chairman.
Former Sabah Bersatu chief Hajiji had announced on December 10 that he and other state party leaders had called it quits from the outfit.
“The alliance had also decided to drop Bersatu from GRS and be part of the federal unity government to build a stable administration,” Ongkili said in a statement today.
“Newly appointed Sabah Bersatu leader Datuk Seri Ronald Kiandee and his party do not have an agreement with the unity government,” he added.
Ronald yesterday said the memorandum of understanding signed with the federal unity government was not valid as Hajiji’s legitimacy as GRS chairman was in question after he left Bersatu.
The Sabah Perikatan Nasional chairman stressed that Bersatu as a founding member of GRS had never agreed for the coalition to be part of the federal unity government led by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
“Hajiji did not have the validity to remain as GRS chairman after he left Bersatu,” Kiandee had said. – The Vibes, December 18, 2022