Kota Kinabalu: Parti Warisan Sabah, Parti Solidariti Tanah Airku (Star) and Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) leaders deny they are colluding to bring down the current Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) State Government in favour of an all-local-party coalition.
A WhatsApp message went viral claiming that Warisan President Shafie Apdal would return as Chief Minister as there is a plot to depose Hajiji Noor.
The four purported parties are Warisan, PBS, Star and United Progressive Kinabalu Organisation (Upko), collectively called the Sabah Bloc.
Later, a Facebook user “Tu Lah Tu” posted a longer narrative in which he named Shafie, Star President Jeffrey Kitingan and Sabah Barisan Nasional chief Bung Moktar Radin as the main parties in a so-called “Langkah Bukit Merah” to topple the GRS-BN government.
However, these rumours were swiftly denied by leaders of the political parties.
“All these rumours of toppling the Sabah State Government led by Hajiji through the coalition of Warisan, PBS, Star and Upko are nothing more than provocation,” he said in a short message.
“I just wonder who is playing (this game) and what is their motive, because I am certainly not part of this game played by these individuals – if it is even true at all.”
Warisan Deputy President Darell Leiking similarly dismissed the rumours, saying they were “the product of people’s imagination” on social media.
“There is no such thing. How they can think that way is beyond me,” he said.
PBS Vice-President Arthur Sen said this was not the first time such a narrative was spread on social media, adding that he believed it was done by certain people in the hope of destabilising the GRS-BN government.
“These rumours arose out of desperation. They have no regard for the people who gave GRS and BN the mandate to govern Sabah in the last state election,” he said.
“I believe it is also a retention strategy because there are rumours that some of their assemblymen are contemplating switching sides to GRS or BN soon.
“Telling them that their president would be the chief minister may offer them an incentive to stay,” he said.
Meanwhile, the exit of Star from Perikatan National has spawned rumours rife more Sabahan parties would do likewise.
The speculation was that the Sabah chapter of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) and Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) would also leave the state PN, and possibly go under the ruling Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) coalition.
GRS Secretary-General Datuk Masidi Manjun denied that the party would be joining the United Sabah National Organisationsno), one of the parties in GRS, but that it would, instead, be under GRS directly.
“Give us a few more days for direct membership of GRS,” said Masidi.
Astro Awani reported Masidi as denying rumours of the Bersatu Sabah MPs joining Usno.
“Not true, I think this was an amateur move to split GRS and BN in the State,” he was quoted saying.
Until recently, Sabah Bersatu, SAPP and Star were under PN, but the same three parties were also in the state GRS coalition with USNO and Parti Bersatu Sabah(PBS). They are in the state government with Barisan Nasional.
But events after the 15th general election saw a switch in allegiance when PN’s efforts to form the government did not materialise, and GRS decided to support a unity government with Pakatan Harapan and Barisan Nasional instead.
In the end, 24 out of 25 Sabahan MPs officially supported the federal government formed by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
Hajiji has said that GRS made the decision for the benefit of the state, and that PN chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was “a wiser man” and would understand the rationale behind the decision.
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