KOTA KINABALU: Sabah’s chief minister’s decision to include Barisan Nasional (BN) in the state government has triggered pushback, with several party wings saying that voters had given a mandate for local parties to lead in Saturday’s polling.
The peninsula-based coalition suffered major setbacks in the election, losing several of its long-held seats.
“The decision of voters must be respected. The people of Sabah have clearly signalled their rejection of BN’s inclusion in the state government and any attempt to override the people’s mandate would be inappropriate,” said the youth wing of Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah in a statement on Monday (Dec 1).
Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah is the lynchpin of the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) coalition led by Hajiji Noor, who was sworn in as chief minister early on Sunday.
GRS, a pact of local-based parties, had teamed up with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition in contesting the Nov 29 state election. BN was not part of the GRS-PH pact for the polls.
“Out of honour for my family and supporters, no Barisan (Nasional),” GRS assemblyman for Pantai Dalit, Jasnih Daya, posted on social media, as reported by The Star on Monday.
That day, Hajij appointed BN’s Jafry Ariffin, who is the Sabah UMNO Secretary, as the new state tourism, culture and environment minister. The United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) is a lynchpin component party of BN.
Analysts told CNA that Hajiji’s decision to bring BN into his government was “unusual” and a “betrayal” to those who had backed GRS, especially since Hajiji had campaigned on a Sabah First message. Sabah First is one of the four main pillars of GRS’s development agenda highlighted during its election campaign.
“BN’s inclusion is a big surprise … Hajiji has to explain this,” James Chin, Asian studies professor at the University of Tasmania told CNA.
Source: CNA
