Hajiji (seated centre) with his new Sabah Cabinet line-up.
KOTA KINABALU: The new Sabah Cabinet met on Wednesday (Jan 18) after a reshuffle which saw the appointment of three new ministers and exchanges of portfolios between several others.
Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor chaired the Cabinet meeting, which is the first following the Sabah political crisis which unfolded some two weeks ago, at Menara Kinabalu here.
The new ministers - Datuk James Ratib (Community Development and People’s Well- being), Datuk Christina Liew (Tourism, Culture and Environment) and Phoong Jin Zhe (Industrial Development) - were sworn in on Jan 11.
Meanwhile Datuk Shahelmey Yahya attended the meeting for the first time as Deputy Chief Minister III. He also holds the Works Minister's portfolio.
The Chief Minister also welcomed back Rural Development Minister Datuk Jahid Jahim who had been on medical leave since last year.
Other ministers in attendance were Deputy Chief Minister I - Datuk Seri Dr Jeffrey Kitingan, who is also the state Agriculture and Fisheries Minister, Deputy Chief Minister II, Datuk Seri Dr Joachim Gunsalam (Local Government and Housing), Finance Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun as well as Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Mohd Arifin Arif and Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Ellron Angin.
Also present was state Secretary Datuk Seri Panglima Sr Safar Untong.
The political crisis was triggered after Sabah Barisan Nasional-Umno withdrew support for the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) government on Jan 6.
There was a possibility that Parti Warisan, with its 19 assemblymen and the 17 Sabah Barisan reps working with smaller parties could have unseated the Hajiji-led government.
However, GRS managed to muster the support of 44 assemblymen.
These include five Sabah Umno assemblymen, who went against the move by Sabah Umno chief Sabah Umno chief Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin, and seven Sabah Pakatan Harapan reps.
This enabled Noor Hajiji, the GRS chairman, to remain as Chief Minister after garnering a simple majority in the 79-member state assembly.
Noor Hajiji subsequently appointed the new state ministers including promoting two of the Sabah Umno dissidents namely Shahelmey and Ratib.
Shahelmey was formerly the community development and people’s wellbeing minister while Ratib was the agriculture and fisheries assistant minister.
Besides Liew, who is the Sabah Pakatan chief, Hajiji also appointed another Pakatan assemblyman, Luyang rep and Sabah DAP secretary Phoong Jin Zhe as a full minister, naming him as the Sabah Industrial Development Minister.
The Cabinet reshuffle saw Bung Moktar lose his Deputy Chief Minister’s and Works Minister’s positions while his two other loyal Umno assemblymen, namely Datuk Yakubah Khan and Datuk Jafry Ariffin, also lost their ministerships.
