KOTA KINABALU: The four former Bersatu members who are now MPs under Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) must quit their seats and seek a fresh mandate from the people, says Sabah Bersatu secretary Abdul Kadir Abdullah Damsal.
He said the party’s move to seek a judicial review by the courts on the Dewan Rakyat Speaker’s decision not to vacate the four GRS MP seats was to uphold the rule of law of the country.
The legal action, he added, was not about Bersatu wanting to kill off local-based parties in Sabah as claimed by GRS’ Papar MP Datuk Armizan Mohd Ali.
“The filing is to exert Bersatu’s legal rights and restore the dignity of the party among not only its loyal supporters but also the people of Sabah,” he said yesterday.
The other three GRS MPs are Matbali Musah (Sipitang), Khairul Firdaus Akbar Khan (Batu Sapi) and Datuk Jonathan Yasin (Ranau).
Abdul Kadir said Malaysia practised democracy and the people must respect the law and legal processes. As such, Bersatu’s legal action to vacate the four seats was needed to ensure the anti-hopping law was observed by all.
“We in Bersatu believe that the four parliamentarians, including Amirzan, have violated the mandate given to them by the voters who voted for Bersatu under the banner of Perikatan Nasional in the 15th General Election. There are no two ways about it,” he said.
He said the filing of the judicial review was not an attempt to prevent local-based parties from gaining strength in Sabah.
“If the four MPS claim to be members of GRS now, then they should have the moral courage to resign and seek a new mandate from voters,” he added.
Prior to this, the four MPs were members of Bersatu who later said they had quit the party to become direct members of GRS.
(Bersatu was a member of the coalition at the time of the general election. The four men contested on GRS tickets.)
But the situation turned murky when Sabah Bersatu leaders, guided by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor, led an exodus out of the party last December to form Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah (Gagasan Rakyat).
Bersatu was kicked out of GRS. Eventually, Gagasan Rakyat became a member of GRS.
Bersatu insisted that the four GRS MPs were part of Perikatan, but they said they were direct members of GRS and contested using the GRS symbol in the election.
