Sabah’s Bersatu members quit Muhyiddin’s party en masse
Members of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) in Sabah have quit the Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin-led party en masse, said Bersatu Sabah chairman Hajiji Noor, who is also the chief minister of the East Malaysian state, The Star reported.
In a statement on Saturday, Datuk Seri Hajiji said his party members have made the “unanimous decision” to leave Bersatu after “having considered Malaysia’s current political landscape, particularly that of Sabah”.
It wasn’t immediately clear if their decision to quit Bersatu, and form a new party, would trigger Malaysia’s anti-hopping law (AHL) and thus trigger by-elections for their Sabah constituencies.
The AHL, which took effect on Oct 5 this year was meant to prevent Members of Parliament from switching parties, a major feature of politicking that saw a change of three prime ministers after the 2018 general election.
The AHL says a lawmaker who quit, or is sacked, by his party would trigger a by-election for the seat. But the law isn’t clear on what would happen if the lawmaker had contested under the banner of a political coalition, as happened in this instance where some of them won under the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) coalition.
In his statement Hajiji said: “We thank the President of Bersatu and Chairman of Perikatan Nasional (PN), Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin for his leadership during our tenure as Bersatu members.”
But he added that the status quo is “no longer tenable”.
“This is because at the federal level, Bersatu is in the opposition whilst GRS has pledged support to the unity government led by Anwar (Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim),” said Hajiji, who is also the chairman of GRS.
Bersatu Sabah was a component party under GRS. The coalition won six out of the 13 parliamentary seats they contested in the recent election.
Following the Nov 19 polls which threw up a hung Parliament, GRS initially rooted for PN to form the government, with Muhyiddin as the prime minister.
But the coalition later pledged their full support for the unity government led by Anwar instead, after the Sabah state government took into account the Malaysian King’s advice to prioritise political stability and economic recovery.
Hajiji said: “We are confident that this decision will be good for political unity and stability in Sabah.”
Moving forward, Hajiji said his members will form a new local party. For now, they are still members of GRS, and will use GRS to voice Sabah’s interests and that of the Bornean states in Malaysia, he said.