Umno breached cooperation deal in Sabah, says Hamzah

KOTA KINABALU: Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia is backing up Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor in a bid to stave off the attempt to unseat him.

The surprise show of support came from Bersatu secretary-general Datuk Hamzah Zainudin (pic), who told reporters that Sabah Barisan Nasional had breached a cooperation agreement with Perikatan Nasional made before the 2020 Sabah polls.

"The agreement when Hajiji and Bung were appointed (as chief minister and deputy respectively), was supposed to be accepted by all... so Umno is supposed to follow the deal," he said during a press conference here on Sunday (Jan 8).

Hamzah said the tiff between Hajiji and Bersatu was akin to fighting among siblings.

The national Opposition leader said for this crisis, some Sabah ex-Bersatu assemblymen were still keen to remain with the party but chose to stick with Hajiji for the current Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) government to remain.

"I've spoken to them (ex-Bersatu assemblymen) and they say their hearts are with Bersatu but they want to remain with Hajiji to ensure the current government stays," he said.

Hajiji led an exodus of leaders out of Bersatu on Dec 8 last year and subsequently became GRS direct members. GRS kicked out Bersatu as a member of the coalition.

Hamzah said that for now, the assemblymen want to ensure Hajiji remains Chief Minister.

"But next time we don't know," he said.

He said the question of whether Hajiji wants the support of Bersatu should also be posed to him.

"The support is not only about (the number of) assemblymen. You must understand how many members we have," Hamzah said.

He added that the ongoing crisis was a different issue from what could happen next but did not elaborate further.

"When these kinds of crises happen, sometimes it will last. Timing is very important and so are circumstances – what's going to happen in the future is something that no one can tell at the moment," said Hamzah.

When asked if Bersatu was with GRS to stop Umno from taking over the state government, he said "not really", adding that the assemblyman concerned were already not with Bersatu.

Hamzah also did not say how many assemblymen or MPs had returned to Bersatu over the current crisis.

He also said Bersatu was waiting for the Registrar of Societies (ROS) to say if GRS had proper grounds to eject Bersatu.

On another matter, he said Datuk Ronald Kiandee had been appointed as Sabah Bersatu chairman and that work was being done to restructure party divisions in the state.