Photo: Bernama
KOTA KINABALU: Parti Kesejahteraan Demokratik Masyarakat (KDM) has declared that it believes Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor should step down as the Chief Minister.
In a statement issued on Friday (Jan 6), KDM president Datuk Peter Anthony and its two other assemblymen said Hajiji no longer commands the majority to be chief minister.
The other two are KDM deputy presidents Datuk Juil Nuatim (Limbahau assemblyman) and Datuk Wetrom Bahanda (Bandau).
Anthony, the Melalap assemblyman, said this was in accordance with Article 6(3) and Article 6(7) of the Sabah state constitution.
“Hajiji, the Sulaman assemblyman, no longer has sufficient majority to be chief minister according to these Articles that state a chief minister is the leader of a political party that has the majority of seats following the 16th Sabah state election in 2020,” he said.
“As such, under Article 7(1) of the Sabah constitution, the Sulaman assemblyman must resign immediately,” he added in the statement.
The statement was issued not long after Sabah Barisan Nasional pulled its support from the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS)-led government led by Hajiji on Friday night.
Towards this end, Anthony said KDM will leave the matter to Sabah Governor Tun Juhar Mahiruddin to decide.
“We leave it to the wisdom and discretion of the Sabah Yang di-Pertua Negeri to decide on the appointment of the new Chief Minister based on the state constitution,” he said.
Sabah Barisan chief Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin had announced the decision to pull the plug on the 27-month old coalition government after chairing a two-hour meeting at the Sabah Umno headquarters here on Friday night.
Bung Moktar, a Deputy Chief Minister in Hajiji’s state Cabinet, said Sabah Barisan had lost confidence in the latter as he had lost his locus standi to remain as CM after he quit Bersatu to become a direct member of GRS.
The basis of cooperation under the loose umbrella of GRS, he said, was done between Sabah Barisan, Perikatan Nasional and Parti Bersatu Sabah following the 2020 snap state election when they defeated Parti Warisan and Pakatan Harapan.
Hajiji was backed as the Chief Minister as he was Sabah Bersatu chairman under Perikatan then, he said.
“When he decided to ditch Bersatu (on Dec 8), the whole cooperation ended,” he added.
Furthermore, Bung Moktar said, Hajiji and GRS had breached the cooperation with Barisan by sacking Sabah Umno’s Usukan assemblyman Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak as chairman of state investment arm Qhazanah Sabah Bhd.
He also claimed that Hajiji did not discuss his plan, as required under the cooperation between GRS and Sabah Barisan, for a Cabinet reshuffle.
Hajiji had earlier announced in a brief statement on Friday that there will be a reshuffle. This followed an alleged move by Sabah Barisan and Warisan to topple the GRS government.
