KOTA KINABALU: Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal (pic) says he is saddened that Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor has failed to honour an agreement to form a Sabah unity government to include all parties that are in the Federal Government.
The Parti Warisan president said Hajiji, the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) chairman, had chosen to ignore Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s advice and breached the earlier consensus to include the parties in the state government.
Shafie, a former chief minister, said Warisan had given its full backing to Anwar’s proposal for a Sabah unity government during the latter’s brief stopover here on Monday.
He pointed out that the recommendation by Anwar was also supported by Sabah Barisan Nasional and Parti KDM.
Shafie said they also agreed on the immediate formation of a special committee to work out the details of the proposed unity government.
“But on Jan 11, the swearing-in of the new state Cabinet Ministers took place and it did not reflect a unity government.
“This action by Hajiji directly ignored the proposal by the Prime Minister and went against what was agreed,” Shafie said in a statement yesterday.
The Senallang assemblyman said the consensus to form a unity government in Sabah would have resolved the political crisis in the state.
On Wednesday morning, Hajiji brought in two Sabah Pakatan Harapan leaders and two Sabah Barisan dissidents from Umno into his state Cabinet as he moved to end a political crisis following Barisan’s withdrawal of support for his government.
“It is important for the state government to function as a cohesive team that shares the same aspirations built on mutual trust and respect,” Hajiji had said.
Meanwhile, Warisan’s Tungku assemblyman Assafal Alian said there was a pressing need to adopt the anti-hopping law in Sabah to ensure political stability in the state.
He called on the state government to table the Constitution (Amendment) Act (No.3) 2022 (Act A1663), more commonly known as the anti-party hopping law, more so after the political crisis that unfolded in the state over the past week.
According to Assafal, the law prohibiting MPs from crossing the floor went into effect on Oct 5 last year, and the Federal Government subsequently called on state governments to adopt the law at the state level.
“However, the anti-hopping law has yet to be implemented by the Sabah government despite several statements in the media by the Chief Minister, who had given the commitment to do so since early November last year,” he said yesterday.
“After looking at what happened recently as well as the political turmoil involving the Sabah government since the formation of Malaysia, I urge the state government to table the law immediately.
“If the law is tabled and passed at the Sabah state assembly, it would bring about political stability and development continuity, at least in the foreseeable future,” added the Warisan supreme council member.
