Major exodus cripples Sabah Umno
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Umno chief Hajiji Mohd Noor today joined other elected representatives, senators and senior division leaders exiting the party and becoming independents, effectively crippling the party’s chapter in the state.
Hajiji said the decision was unanimous, saying it was taken because “Umno is not what it used to be”.
“The current leadership lacks clear political direction,” he told a packed press conference here today.
Those leaving comprised four MPs, nine assemblymen, two senators and 21 division heads.
“We are not sure where Umno is heading to. There are conflicting accounts of the ‘way forward’ depending on who you talk to at the top leadership,” he said.
Apart from Hajiji, the other Umno assemblymen are Musbah Jamli (Tempasuk), Japlin Akin (Usukan), Ghulam Haidar Khan Bahada (Kawang), Mohd Arifin Mohd Arif (Membakut), Isnin Aliasnih (Klias), Matbali Musbah (Lumadan), Masidi Manjun (Karanaan), Nizam Abu Bakar Titingan (Apas).
The MPs meanwhile are Abdul Rahim Bakri (Kudat), Azizah Mohd Dun (Beaufort), Ronald Kiandee (Beluran) and Zakaria Mohd Edris (Libaran).s
They are also joined by two senators, Penampang Umno chief John Ambrose and Pensiangan Umno chief Ghani Yassin.
Two senior leaders who are not among them are former chief minister Musa Aman and Kinabatangan MP Bung Moktar.
Hajiji said the group would be joined by Musa’s son, Sipitang MP Hafez Yamani Musa. Hafez has yet to be sworn in as MP in the Dewan Rakyat.
Senior state party leaders including Sabah Umno information chief Pandikar Amin and Supreme Council member Salleh Said Keruak, who were present at today’s press conference, had also quit the party.
Hajiji said although the group was party-less for now, it pledged full support for the Pakatan Harapan government led by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
“Consistent with the above, we would like to also register our pledge to support (Chief Minister) Shafie Apdal and the Sabah government,” he added.
Also at the press conference were were PPBM Supreme Council members Rais Hussin and Rafiq Naizamohideen, as well as Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah deputy president Arthur Kurup.
When asked if the group would be joining PPBM or Warisan, Masidi said they were considering all their options.
He said those who had left would regroup and chart a new course, adding that a decision would likely be announced in a month’s time.
On whether PPBM was planning to enter Sabah, Masidi, the outgoing Sabah Umno secretary, said it was up to the party if it wished to do so.
“That is only speculation for now,” he said. “But we will speak our mind. It doesn’t mean that if we are friendly (to the government), we have to accept everything.”
He added that there was no need to refer to Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi over today’s decision, which had been unanimous.
Kiandee meanwhile said he had met Zahid last Monday and unofficially told the latter of the group’s move.
When asked if the decision had the blessings of Musa and whether he too would be part of the group, Hajiji said he had informed the former Sabah Umno chief of the matter but could not say more than that.
“I can’t speak for him. You have to ask him.”
Hajiji said he believed more than half of Sabah Umno’s 500,000 members would be joining the group.
He said members from the state’s women, Puteri and Youth wings would also leave.
In his opening statement earlier, he said the group believed Umno’s relevance in Sabah had become politically untenable.
“Sabah Umno leaders and members need to move on and chart a new political direction. It will take a lot of courage and hard work to build a new political movement and entity. But together, we can do it.
“We have no bitterness against Umno, only some disappointments. I, with many of my colleagues, have benefited from our association with Umno,” he said, adding that it was through the party that they were appointed as ministers and to other important posts.
He said the group’s decision also took into account the fact that Sabah Umno had over 100,000 non-Muslims, and that any shift in the party’s political direction would jeopardise their support for Umno.
On their association with opposition bloc Gabungan Bersatu Sabah, Hajiji said they would maintain the relationship.
“Whatever it is, we can still have coffee together… that’s the beauty of Sabah,” he said.
On whether Kimanis MP Anifah Aman would join the group, he said he had not met the latter.
After collapse in Sabah, Umno preps for second wave of exodus
PETALING JAYA: At least 32 Umno MPs in Peninsular Malaysia have switched allegiance to Dr Mahathir Mohamad, FMT has learnt, with five of them ready to declare their exit from the party which is reeling from its biggest ever exodus in Sabah since entering the state 27 years ago.
Of the five, two are from the east coast, and the rest from Perak, Johor and Selangor.
“Once this happens, more Umno MPs are expected to leave their old party,” said a source close to the inner circles of the party.
Describing it as the “second wave” of exodus from Umno, the source said this would happen in stages.
Yesterday, 36 elected representatives, senators and division heads in Sabah announced that they were leaving Umno, effectively crippling the party’s state chapter which was established in 1991.
Joining them were former federal minister Salleh Said Keruak and former Dewan Rakyat speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia. Another federal minister, Kimanis MP Anifah Aman, had quit the party in September to become an independent.
Although former Umno chief and former chief minister Musa Aman was notably absent from the press conference by the outgoing MPs in Kota Kinabalu yesterday, it is understood that he had also agreed to the move.
Musa’s son Hafez Yamani Musa, who has yet to take his oath as MP after winning the Sipitang federal seat, will also follow his colleagues out of the party.
The source said the move by Sabah Umno had more to do with a general disappointment over the Umno central leadership’s closer ties with right-wing groups as well as PAS.
“Sabah Umno members and leaders have traditionally stayed out of such race rhetoric, but the noise coming from Kuala Lumpur is too loud for them to ignore,” a Sabah Umno veteran told FMT.
“There is no clear direction from Umno. Many wanted changes at the top but it didn’t happen,” he added.
Meanwhile, one of those who left the party said the feeling of despair was too obvious.
“We are leaving because we do not know where the party is heading,” he told FMT.
Although the four MPs and nine state assemblymen have said they are now independents, speculation is rife that their move was in preparation for their joining PPBM, which has yet to start its chapter in Sabah.
Fuelling such talk was confirmation by Mahathir yesterday that several Sabah Umno leaders had approached him before their decision.
But the prime minister refused to say if the party-less MPs would find a new home in PPBM, which he chairs.
“We have to see how they behave. If they are supportive and didn’t do anything wrong in the past, we will accept them,” he told reporters last night.
In October, PPBM Supreme Council member A Kadir Jasin claimed that as many as 40 MPs from Umno would quit the party to join PPBM.
Meanwhile, a Sabah Umno elected representative made no secret of the meeting with Mahathir.
“When we pledged our support to Mahathir, we told him we would join PPBM,” he told FMT.
Umno won 54 seats in the May general election, which saw the party’s fall from grace after six decades dominating the government.
Some of its top leaders are facing charges of corruption, including former leader Najib Razak, current party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, and former federal territories minister Tengku Adnan Mansor.
Several Umno MPs had already quit the party in the wake of the polls defeat, including former trade minister Mustapa Mohamed, former Puteri Umno chief Mas Ermieyati Samsudin, and Bagan Serai MP Noor Azmi Ghazali.
