Sabah Umno has autonomy to pick its political partners, Suhaimi

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Umno is granted autonomy to decide on who it will work with in the coming state election, says the party’s state information chief Datuk Suhaimi Nasir.

As such, he said no outside parties or individuals had the right to ask Sabah Umno chief Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin to resign from his post if the party decided to work with Parti Warisan or any other party in the state.

“Only our 600,000 members in the state have a right to voice their views on the matter if we cooperate with other parties including Warisan for the next state election,” he said.

Suhami, who is Libaran Umno division chief, was responding to the call by Gerakan Kuasa Malaysia (G57) chairman Datuk Zulkarnain Mahdar who asked for Bung to step down from leading Sabah Umno if he still wanted to continue his plans to work with Warisan.

Suhaimi said so far, there had been no decision on whether Sabah Umno would cooperate with other parties in the next state election due by September 2025.

“Sabah Umno needs to be careful and only cooperate with parties that respect the agreement signed.

“The previous cooperation with other parties has matured us and made us more cautious in establishing cooperation with other parties in the state,” he said in reference to the tie-up in the September 2020 snap Sabah elections between Sabah Umno and Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) that went sour.

“We will work with political parties that respect each other’s agreements and benefit Umno and Sabah.

“We will also see friends who have loyalty and sincerity in carrying out their responsibilities as partners to fight for the benefit of the people of Sabah. We don’t want any more internal crises that disrupt efforts to develop Sabah,” he said in a statement here Saturday (Jan 6).

Sabah Umno on Jan 5, last year withdrew its support to the GRS state government led by Chief Minister Hajiji, who managed to retain control of the state government with the support of Sabah Pakatan Harapan and renegades from Sabah Umno.

Zullkarnain said that his group was disappointed with Umno which decided to cooperate with Warisan and “prayed” that Bung was replaced as state Umno chief.

He claimed that Sabah Umno was split into two groups with Bung Moktar pushing for an electoral pact with Warisan led by Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal.

Suhaimi had no right to speak on the affairs of Sabah Umno and advised the activist to look after his NGO instead playing up the interests of certain outside parties to divide Sabah Umno.

“Whatever, Sabah Umno decides whether we want to cooperate with other parties in the coming election, it is Sabah Umno’s right, let us decide it and not be determined by outsiders who are not related to Umno,” Suhaimi said.