Has the SLS Gone Off Course?

If the Sabah Law Society (SLS) thinks the State AG should continue it must also warn the public which lawyers they should not engage due to complaints or other misdemeanors.

There are many complaints by the public on the professional misconduct or unsatisfactory professional conduct against some lawyers.

Until now the SLS dare not publicly produce a list of all the problematic lawyers in Sabah.

SLS should follow the example of the Bar in Peninsular which makes public a list of all lawyers who have no valid Practising Certificates. They should do this in Sabah by publishing in the Daily express and other media.

SLS should make public all the lawyers brought before the Disciplinary Board for various complaints brought against them and make public the findings. This is what they should be doing, they should do this as their duty instead of speaking on behalf of the State AG whose position is up to the Sabah State Government and not the SLS.

the below came out in the Sunday Forum Daily Express. see here

Disagrees with stand of SLS on State AG

Published on Sunday, December 06, 2020

Credit: Borneo Post Online

AS a lawyer, I am puzzled by the spirited defence mounted by the Sabah Law Society (SLS) over the appointment of  Datuk Brendon Soh as the new State Attorney General in the last days of the previous Warisan-Plus State Government.

It argued that there was no need for the new GRS State Government to replace Soh, who was also reportedly paid a package to the tune of RM60,000 per month or at least two to three times more than any of his predecessors.

Since when did SLS become duty-bound to defend its past president in a manner akin to telling the new Chief Minister how to do his job. Especially when Soh on record defended the previous State Government against sitting members of the present administration.

All Attorney Generals, be they at Federal or State level, made their exit as a matter of principle or ethics or were replaced by the incoming administrations, in case the SLS President suffers from memory lapse.

Tommy Thomas stepped aside when Tun Dr Mahathir’s Pakatan Harapan government fell. Going back to Sabah’s political history, this has also always been the case.

Nicholas Fung made way when Berjaya fell to Datuk Herman Luping. So did Datuk Stephen Foo, Datuk Bazain, Datuk Roderick Fernandez, Datuk Mariati, etc, when the time came for their replacement.

I don’t recall even the then SLA making any stand as SLS did when previous AGs were replaced and I believe an explanation is in order, as well as an apology to the Chief Minister.

Puzzled

Air Asia’s secret flight to KK on a November morning

This is picked up from our “MARKET TALK” page in Facebook…

It seems, somewhere early last month just after the 16th Sabah state assembly on Nov 12, Air Asia tycoon Tony Fernandes had personally sent his AirAsia plane to Kota Kinabalu to whisk Shafie Apdal and his wife and one other person to Kuala Lumpur in a top secret, early morning enterprise, “Market Talk” has learned exclusively.

The hush-hush operation allowed the secrecy-obsessed Shafie to leave home in Kota Kinabalu and to avoid any wait at airport departure and once he arrived at the Kuala Lumpur Airport.

‘It was a well-planned operation that appears to have worked perfectly,’ one insider said. Insider also said Tony Fernandes had instructed all the AirAsia staffs not to engage in any conversation about those 3 VIP passengers on-board.

But the question has remained — until now — how did Shafie and wife and one other person get to fly on an entire plane to themselves from Kota Kinabalu to Kuala Lumpur without being spotted?

With flights following so many SOPs acting as the norm these days, especially during this Covid19 season, imagine Tony sending an entire AirAsia plane just to carry Shafie his wife an one other person to KL, and yet not being spotted in Kota Kinabalu airport or the Kuala Lumpur airport.

MoH had decided that all those coming to the peninsula from the Borneon state should undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine. 2 days ago, after Dr Jefffrey Kitingan was spotted in Parliament there was a big hoo-ha, opposition MPs alleged that Kitingan had broken the Covid-19 quarantine order to attend parliamentary session. However, the Minister of Health Dr Adham Baba announced that the National Security Council (NSC) had decided that the mandatory 14-day quarantine was no longer required, after seeing that the number of Covid-19 cases in Sabah had dropped in the last few weeks.

Interesting, Tony Fernandes sent a plane just to carry Shafie Apdal, his wife and one other person to KL in this Covid quarantine time! The secrecy of this trip makes “Market Talk” wonder if its to do with MACC investigating the Sabah Development Bank’s RM300 million loan to AirAsia OR it could be just to attend parliament in this Covid-19 times?

Shafie needs to answer why RM300 million Sabah loan to Air Asia

July 2nd 2020 – AirAsia Group Bhd secured a RM300 million loan from Sabah Development Bank Bhd (SDB).

Two weeks earlier, somewhere in June 2020 – prominent Sabah businessman Ambrose Lee, Kalimulah Hassan, Kamaruddin Meranun and Tony Fernandes and a few more from Air Asia were seen in Kota Kinabalu having sumptuous Fish Head Curry, celebrating the approval of 300 million loan.

Shafie Apdal has to answer how come loan approved without public knowing it and without the usual funfair when such huge loans are approved by a state agency? Even Air Asia only now in October 2020 was forced to admit and to come out to say that RM300 million loan from SDB was approved and already disbursed.

How can SDB being a state agency that should be serving Sabah Industries and businesses gave a huge RM300 million loan without letting Sabahans know?

And is it true that the RM300 million loan was hurriedly released to Air Asia when Chief Minister Hajiji Noor was in the intensive care unit (ICU) of Queen Elizabeth Hospital II (QEH II) receiving treatment in hospital for Covid-19?

This loan was approved on July 2nd 2020 when in early June Air Asia had already started retrenching staffs, including in Sabah. The Air Asia staffs even complain compensation was not enough. It was even reported that the airline had laid off over 2,400 employees since Malaysia’s borders were closed on March 18 this year. So how can SDB approve RM300 million loan to Air Asia when airlines everywhere were grounded due to COVID-19 and international borders were closed? How can SDB approve this loan on July 2nd when Sabah also stopped Chinese flights in January followed by other international flights?

Since the emergence of Covid-19 in early 2020, demand for air travel has been hampered and exacerbated by international borders closures. This has taken a heavy toll on most airlines’ operations globally.

Even before this loan was approved and hurriedly disbursed bigger airlines like Virgin, Cathay Pacific, American Airlines were already retrenching tens and thousands of workers and also facing bankruptcy.

What was the collateral Air Asia gave the Sabah state government to secure this loan? If it was shares of Air Asia it has no value as Tony Fernandez owes creditors 60 billion as reported. Even Malaysia Airports Holdings is suing Air Asia for RM78.16 million. High debt levels have made the situation even dicier.

So how can Warisan government approve this loan to Air Asia on July 2nd?

Looking at some of the directors of SDB shows that they are mostly Warisan people, see here

And the Managing Director of Sabah Development Bank (SDB) –

Can we imagine how much RM300 million can do to the Sabah economy during this COVID times? SDB should be made answerable for the loan approval and Shafie has a lot of answering to do.

As coronavirus reduces travel, Air Asia is in a tough spot owing to its high levels of debt.

This is total madness and this doesn’t make sense at all!

UPDATED OCTOBER 28th

I’ve nothing to hide, says Shafie over MACC probe into RM300 million loan to AirAsia

KOTA KINABALU: Former Sabah chief minister Shafie Apdal welcomes any investigation into the RM300 million loan from state-owned Sabah Development Bank Sdn Bhd (SDB) to low-cost carrier AirAsia.

The Semporna MP said that as the former chief minister and state finance minister, neither he nor anyone in the previous administration had anything to hide over the approved loan, adding that “nothing was hidden” too in the whole process.

“This is because the loan was not approved overnight. Instead, SDB had carried out its own investigation and thorough risk assessment before deciding to approve the loan.

“AirAsia is a public-listed company with Bursa Malaysia, hence, the approval for any transaction worth RM300 million will only be given after all conditions of the loan are met by the borrower,” Shafie said, in a statement here today.

The Warisan president said as a favourite airline among Malaysians, AirAsia had a development plan that would benefit Sabah, adding the carrier had targeted to create 100,000 job opportunities in the state.

“As a state administrator, we cannot depend on one company alone, such as Malaysia Airlines. The role of other companies, especially AirAsia, should not be underestimated.

“In line with that, as a government responsible to develop the economy, close cooperation was needed with AirAsia because, if their plan worked, Sabahans will reap the benefits.”

Earlier today, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) office in Sabah had confirmed it had initiated a probe on SDB’s loan to AirAsia to establish if there were elements of graft involved.

A local daily had reported that Chief Minister Hajiji Noor had also ordered a probe into how the RM300 million approved by SDB, under the previous Warisan-led administration, was disbursed in a hurry to AirAsia after the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah government took over.

Meanwhile, Shafie disclosed that AirAsia had planned several projects in the state capital, including an agriculture produce storage facility known as “OurFarm”.ADVERTISING

He added this was in line with the airlines’ target of becoming the main distributor of agricultural fishery products that would be marketed through e-commerce channels.

The Senallang assemblyman said AirAsia was also planning to spend RM110 million to develop the Kota Kinabalu International Airport (KKIA) as their international hub.

“All those plans will surely benefit Sabah as a state rich with agricultural and fishery resources.

“In fact, when I was the chief minister, the 2021-2030 agriculture development action plan was launched to make Sabah a distributor of agriculture produce besides ensuring the country’s food security,” he said.

Shafie said with the creation of a product supply chain, Sabahan farmers will then be able to generate more income with a larger market reach internationally through AirAsia.

In the tourism industry, he said Sabah’s glory days as a tourist destination will be restored if AirAsia’s target of making the state as its international hub becomes a reality.

“We know that before Covid-19 hit, Sabah’s economy had increased rapidly in the tourism sector and the people enjoyed the economic windfall, not only in Kota Kinabalu but also all the way to the east coast of the state.”

from FMT, see here: https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2020/10/28/ive-nothing-to-hide-says-shafie-over-macc-probe-into-rm300-million-loan-to-airasia/

UPDATED OCTOBER 30th

AirAsia: RM300m SDB loan complies with laws, procedures

Bernama Published 9:14 pm

AirAsia Group Bhd has reiterated that the transaction whereby it secured the aggregate RM300 million loan facilities from Sabah Development Bank (SDB) was completed in accordance with all laws, policies and procedures pertaining to its application.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia today, the budget carrier also said the transaction took five months to complete from the time of application.

The facilities have been approved by SDB for the development of the various projects and are intended to bring about significant positive socio-economic impacts to the state of Sabah, it said.

“With the facilities, AirAsia’s contribution (currently at almost one per cent to the state’s gross domestic product) is expected to double within the next 10 years and help Sabah regain its position as a top tourism destination post-Covid-19,” AirAsia said.

The company said the transaction would, among others, enable AirAsia to accelerate its expansion plans to transform Kota Kinabalu into an international hub for its passenger and logistics operations.

AirAsia said it had been providing domestic and international connectivity to Sabah since 2001, flying in 660,000 visitors to the state and supporting almost 60,000 jobs in the state.

The facilities, it said, would also be used to develop and enhance cold chain facilities in Sabah that would increase the marketability of the state’s fresh produce domestically and internationally through AirAsia’s Ourfarm digital food supply platform.

“This would potentially result in increased profits for farmers and fishermen in the state, which is in line with Sabah’s mission of becoming a top food-producing state in Malaysia and contributing towards the country’s food security,” the airline said.

AirAsia’s statement follows various news articles regarding the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) investigating the RM300 million loan facilities given by the Sabah state-owned bank to the airline.

At the close today, shares of AirAsia fell 0.9 per cent to 55 sen.

– Bernama

https://bernama.com/en/news.php?id=1895484

Will Sabah economy get back on track after the snap polls?

For 15 years, from 2003 to 2018, a remarkable confluence of circumstances generated and strengthened the view that Sabah had arrived. There was a structural upturn in the economy triggered by an unprecedented investment boom, accompanied by an unprecedented credit boom. Huge investments were made into construction, production and into infrastructure. Investment as a proportion of GDP went as high as 40%. The Sabah growth story started unfolding. In the fifteen years of Musa Aman before the May 9th 2018 elections, Sabah clocked 6% to 8.2% annual growth on average. Sabah weathered the global financial crisis reasonably well and came out of the crisis sooner than most states.

Things started unraveling after Shafie Apdal took over the CMship on 12th May 2018 when many projects got delayed and stopped. Investments soured. Bad loans mounted. The financial sector came under stress. In popular perception, this reversal in prospects is associated with crony capitalism. While there certainly was a bit of that, it will be misleading to attribute the entire downturn to crony capitalism; there were several other factors at play.

For example, just after taking over the Sabah state government, the Warisan-led government abruptly took action of terminating the concession contracts of companies operating 58 water treatment plants. Five firms involved in water supply and treatment plant maintenance filed a RM254 million lawsuit against the Sabah state government over what they claimed to be wrongful termination of their contracts.

Then in March last year, Pelangi Prestasi a company related to one of the richest bumiputras in Malaysia, Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Albukhary won a tender to acquire all the assets of the pulp and paper milling company Sabah Forest Industries Sdn Bhd (SFI) for RM1.2 billion. Pelangi paid a 10% deposit of RM120mil for the asset. In May 2018, Warisan led Sabah Government rejected the issuance of fresh timber licences to Pelangi in relation to Pelangi Prestasi’s proposed acquisition of Sabah Forest Industries (SFI).

Now, there is a civil suit between Pelangi Prestasi and the Warisan-led Sabah government. This is a RM1.2 billion legal suit against the Warisan-led Sabah government.

Another company, Boonrich Sdn Bhd, which is linked to former chief minister Harris Salleh is also suing the state government for RM91.6 million over the ban on log exports by the Warisan-led administration last year. Boonrich cultivates teak trees on its OWN LAND on a commercial basis for 27 years and have been exporting cultivated timber for years. Now with the blanket ban on log exports by the Warisan-led state government,  even commercially cultivated timber cannot be exported.

Perhaps, this is a record of the Warisan-led state government which is facing close to RM2.5 billion damages claim. Never in the history of the Sabah state government has it ever been sued for over RM2.5 billion in damages. Warisan starting off on the wrong foot is facing multi-billion-ringgit lawsuits in just within 26 months in power.

Then there were also delays in projects because of delays in clearances and permissions. Court orders cancelling some government decisions added to the delays. Contractors too were not getting paid. As a result of all these factors, the investment engine switched off. With investment and net exports not contributing substantially to GDP growth, during Shafie Apdal’s 26 months in office, the economy was firing on a single engine, the engine of consumption. But even that consumption engine has now petered out with the result that growth has declined sharply to negative territory. With Covid, its even worst now.

Sabah recorded a slower growth of 1.5 per cent for 2018 and 0.5 per cent for 2019 as compared to a strong growth of 8.2 per cent in the previous year during Musa Aman at the helm. Mining & quarrying and Agriculture sectors too were affected to negative 5.6 per cent (2017: 15.7%) and negative 0.3 per cent (2017: 4.6%) respectively.

Overall, these numbers are not looking good for Sabah. From 8.2% economic growth nosediving to a paltry 1.5% and 0.5% all in two consecutive years says a lot about Warisan. 

While freezing timber licenses and curbing mining projects are positive steps, but what replaces these projects as sources of employment and job creation in Sabah?

Sand mining is still rampant, and so is timber logging even with the freezing of timber license.

According to former Chief Minister Yong Teck Lee, the Warisan-led State Government in its two years announced investments totalling more than RM70 billion but with nothing to show, just empty talk. “Where is the money?” he asked.

It is true that there was a lot of business support for Shafie when he first came into office nearly two years ago. In fact, in 2018, Shafie campaigned mainly on an economic platform — that he would create jobs and revive investment. There were high hopes and expectations that he would plunge headlong into implementing structural reforms to redeem these campaign promises. That required political capital, and he had plenty of that. Arguably he had more political capital than any other previous Sabah chief ministers. He had a rock solid majority in the Sabah state assembly from all the “froggy” Assemblymen. More than two-thirds.

Regardless Shafie seemed disinclined to invest his enormous political capital to implement the ‘politically’ difficult reforms. Sure, some important reforms got under way during his 26 months. But he initiated none of these reforms; these were all initiatives that he inherited. It’s happenstance that they culminated on his watch. On his own, Shafie did not initiate any notable fresh economic reform.

Shafie somehow seemed to have succumbed to the mistaken belief that the Sabah economy will run on autopilot.

Shafie kantoi surat ‘projek kroni’ didedah Najib tular sejak 2016 bukan kerana sebab bakal PM-9

CAPTAIN M

1.  Shafie Apdal melalui portal Malaysiakini berkata beliau menjadi sasaran serangan Najib Razak apabila bekas perdana menteri itu membocorkan beberapa surat berkaitan projek kerajaan suatu masa dulu.

2. Shafie percaya tindakan berkenaan diambil Najib selepas namanya disebut sebagai calon perdana menteri daripada pembangkang.

“Agaknya dia bimbang apabila Dr Mahathir (Mohamad) menyebut nama saya sebagai calon perdana menteri kesembilan. Hal sebegitu tidak pernah berlaku (sebelum ini).

Ye ke tidak pernah berlaku didedahkan surat projek 2013 itu? surat itu terbukti didedah sejak 2016 lagi. Bukan Najib lagi memang ada dalam laman sosial

Benarkah dakwaan Shafie Apdal itu?

3. Najib dalam facebooknya menafikan bukan kerana Shafie dicadangkan menjadi PM maka semua itu didedahkan kerana sejak sekian lama memang Najib mendedahkan semua pemimpin PH termasuk Shafie Apdal.

4. Benarkah Kedua-dua surat bertarikh pada 2013 mengenai dua projek pembinaan jalan di Johor dan Sabah hanya didedahkan Najib?

FB Najib: Hanya sebahagian surat itu..Permulaan dan  tandatangan

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Party-hopping is not a crime in Sabah’s hunger games

It all started in 1967 when United Pasok Momogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (UPKO) ( corrected, UNITED PASOK KADAZAN ORGANIZATION), was the 1st political party to practice party-hopping in Malaysia. Upko left Sabah Alliance. After the elections, Upko’s assemblyman for Kiulu, Payar Juman, crossed to Usno, enabling the party to form the government then. Tun Mustapha offered Payar the Social Welfare Minister’s post in the Usno government. Upko was then dissolved and merged into Usno in 1967.

Then in 1994, former Upko president Bernard Dompok from then opposition PBS joined the BN alliance to form the government. The PBS government collapsed.

Again in 2018, after winning their five seats on BN symbol, flags and manifesto, Upko decided to ditch the BN coalition. Yet again practiced party-hopping which caused Shafie Apdal to form the Sabah State Government despite Musa Aman legally appointed the Chief Minister of Sabah.

And so Upko lived up to this image of unprincipled politics.

Regardless of how they defended it, by removing the Anti-hopping Law in the early 90s’, Dr Mahathir had allowed this unhealthy culture of party-hopping to be institutionalise in Sabah. Voters and political parties had no legal remedy at the moment due to a 1992 ruling by an apex court that had legalised party-hopping. Dr Mahathir even said, “we are a democratic government, we believe in democracy and democracy allows even frogs to jump.” The term “frog” or “political frog” is used to describe the act of a certain politician who had hopped from one party to another.

So now Shafie is supporting the very same person – Dr Mahathir, who encouraged party-hopping and who many people especially the Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) supporters blame for the collapse of the PBS state government in 1994. What happening right now is reminiscent of Sabah 1994. Betrayal of the people’s mandate at the highest order. Then Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) had just won the 1994 state elections with a slim majority of 25 seats against BN’s 23 seats. PBS government lasted only about two weeks before it was forced out of power through undemocratic manouverings by BN. Sabahans were aware of the carrots received by those PBS assemblypersons who defected to BN.

Since Shafie is supporting the very same person who encouraged party-hopping in Sabah, he should not have any worries about his Warisan and Upko assemblymen wanting to jump.

What about the time Shafie accepted the BN representatives who jumped regardless of whether any incentives were offered? The present Warisan government would not have been possible if Shafie did not exploit it.

Now with the defection of two state assemblymen from United Progressive Kinabalu Organisation (UPKO’s) Limus and Ratib, the state coalition holds 45 seats in the 65-seat state assembly, including four nominated assemblymen.

Hence, Shafie should not be too upset that more of his people are about to jump.

An angry Shafie has hit out at Muhyiddin’s PN for ‘engineering’ these defections. Shafie’s anger may be justified — but perhaps it’s something Shafie once sowed.

What was once legitimised by Shafie supporters has come back to haunt him.

With changing times, political karma seems to have caught up with the Semporna strongman.

You can have all the people around you but when the time comes and its a matter of survival, they will dump you.

And in the meantime, Musa Aman’s civil suit appeal over the right to the chief minister’s post is expected to be heard in the Federal Court real soon, two years has passed. Shafie by now must be having sleepless nights!

Sabah’s hunger games!

Note: See here, this piece came out in Malaysia Today

Editor’s Note: The Government has been urged to enact anti-hopping legislation to prevent lawmakers from switching parties, which has led to the current political turmoil.

Notwithstanding the judicial pronouncement in the case of Dewan Undangan Negeri Kelantan & Anor v Nordin bin Salleh & Anor [1992], Malaysians are of the view that there was no prohibition from the said case for Parliament to legislate anti-defection laws at the Federal level.

The case of Dewan Undangan Negeri Kelantan v Nordin Salleh [1992], came to the conclusion that an amendment to the Kelantan constitution, which prohibited party-hopping was inconsistent with Article 10(1)(c) of the Federal Constitution, which provides that Parliament may by Federal law, impose restrictions on the freedom to form associations in the interest of security, public order or morality.

That the switching of political allegiances after being voted in by the rakyat, can be considered as a betrayal of trust, and politically immoral.

Anti-hopping laws were very much required in order to enhance political stability and public confidence in the democratic process and respect for the decision made by the electorate.

In a democratic nation where the rule of law is held sacrosanct, it is high time for Malaysia to enact laws that make crossing of the floor in the State Assembly or Federal Parliament, illegal.

 

Dr Mahathir getting a taste of his own medicine!

One thing I want to say about the political outcome is that although it is a backdoor government, it may be bad for the Peninsular Malaysia but very good for Sabah.

At last the illegal immigrant problem in Sabah will be tackled effectively because it was during Dr Mahathir’s time that the illegals problem worsened as Mykads were issued to hundreds of thousands of illegals to bring down the Christian-led PBS government.

Suddenly Sabah had the largest UMNO members after Johor. This too failed to bring down the PBS Sabah state government because PBS managed to obtain a simple majority of 25 seats in the then 48 seats Sabah State Assembly in the 1994 elections, and PBS president Joseph Pairin Kitingan sworn in as chief minister of Sabah. However, as a result of defections of PBS assemblymen to the Barisan National, Pairin was forced to resign on 17 March 1994.

With horse-trading PBS assemblymen were promised numerous political positions, power and even money to switch allegiance. PBS was then left with only 5 seats. After 1994, PBS was split into PBRS, AKAR, SAPP and PDS.

So it was UMNO that bought over PBS Assemblymen to form Malaysia’s FIRST backdoor government in 1994.

Before that, Dr Mahathir said the Anti-hopping Law would violate the constitution because it forbade the elected representatives jumping over to the other side for monetary gains and he was in the know that millions had changed hands. Dr Mahathir defended the removal of Anti-hopping Law saying it was against the freedom of association right of the assemblyman, regardless of the rakyat who voted for the assemblyman.

So when all this was happening to Sabah, nobody in Peninsular said anything. Why be angry now that a backdoor government was formed at the federal level? And why is Dr Mahathir so afraid that the states including his Kedah state will fall due to defections to Muafakat Nasional/Perikatan Nasional?

Dr Mahathir the doctor is getting a taste of his own medicine!

Pilihan Raya Kecil Kimanis

Isu utama yang kian menonjol di media sosial di saat-saat pilihan raya Kimanis kini telah beralih daripada isu PSS kepada tempat lahir asal Shafie Apdal. Media sosial kini kian membara dengan khabar bahawa tempat lahir asal Shafie Apdal adalah Jolo di Filipina. Ini boleh dikatakan kerana ramai yang mempertikaikan polisi Parti Warisan yang kian memihak kepada PATI daripada orang Sabah.

Netizen-netizen kian menyuarakan bahawa Shafie Apdal akan mengumumkan sebuah pulau bagi PATI dan juga untuk membenarkan pam bot serta membenarkan tempat tinggal PATI. Selain itu, terdapat janji daripada Shafie Apdal untuk mengambil 200 ekar laut Tanjung Aru untuk dijadikan tanah bagi pendudk di Pulau Gaya. Dan kini untuk memberi PSS kepada PATI!!

Bekas Ketua Menteri Sabah Yong Teik Lee juga menyuarakan bahawa tindakan Shafie ini menghantar mesej kepada penduduk Filipina untuk berhijrah ke Sabah.

Adakah patut penduduk Sabah dipersalahkan dalam menyuarakan kebimbangan mereka sedangkan semua jawatan utama kerajaan negeri dan badan-badan berkanun diisi oleh penyokong Shafie Apdal daripada kawasannya.

Terdapat kebimbangan di kalangan penduduk berkenaan hala tuju Warisan namun mereka memilih untuk mendiamkan diri.

Was it legally and morally right?

The question is not just whether it is legally right because even legally it is highly questionable.

Just because the 3 Appeal Court Judges accepted the Preliminary Objection (PO) does not mean they are right. Simply because, according to the lawyer on the other side, they were not given a chance to explain why it is illegal for a Chief Minister to be dismissed by the TYT within 48 hours of appointing him, when the Constitution states that only the Assembly can unseat a CM by Vote of Confidence.

As the Federal Constitution now stands, the Agong cannot arbitrarily dismiss the PM. Neither can any Menteri Besar be dismissed by the respective Sultans without undergoing the due process as laid out in their respective Constitution.

In the case of Sabah, following the May 9th GE14 and almost 48 hours after the election results were announced, and despite the eventual winner who had 29 seats and commanded a simple majority, with and addition of 2 more seats, had the rug pulled out from under his feet despite having been sworn in.

After unexplained lengthy delay, a swearing-in was promised at 8pm, until 11pm Musa was kept waiting to be sworn in. Almost 24 hours after results were announced, and that within 10 hours the next day he was asked to return the Appointment Letter. This lead many people to believe that horsetrading was going on. Which was confirmed when Upko Assemblymen frogged to Warisan side. At the time of the appointment of the CM this was not the case and he was sworn-in, so why did he have to lose his job after being sworn-in? With the new victors, resorting to Statutory Declaration (SD) rather than people’s vote, which is more important.

Similarly, the Prime Minister was made to wait several hours by the previous Agong after PH victory and that he too complained loudly that this should not have happened as people have spoken. In his case, the previous Agong apparently was abroad.

So, if this was unacceptable to the PM, what happened on the 9th May 2018 be acceptable to Sabahans? Fortunately, in the case of the PM, no Pakatan members frogged-over to BN to deny Dr Mahathir and Pakatan Harapan a victory. Perhaps it was due to the margin of seats being wide unlike in the Sabah case. Nevertheless, an unacceptable delay was allowed to happen with the PM being appointed but in Sabah a CM was also being constitutionally appointed. But yet, losing it due to horsetrading, never-mind the constitution, a Law Expert even joked in a seminar in Kota Kinabalu that Sabah politicians can win a medal for frog politics or something like that.

Its a pity that the Appeal Court Judges accepted the PO to deny the aggrieved in court.

The Counsel for the other side claimed on the grounds that any outcome is academic and he  based it on two main arguments :

1) even if Musa succeeded with his appeal there will be no consequence/outcome because Musa can never satisfy the threshold of Article 6 (3) of the Sabah Constitution which expressly states that the TYT appoints a member of the Assembly to be CM who has the command of the confidence of the majority of the members of the Assembly.

2) even if the Assembly is summoned, with the support of only eight out 60 assemblymen factually and mathematically Musa can never win a vote of confidence for himself or a vote against Shafie and unseat him.

Douglas Lind’s contention the case is academic.

However the larger question is not whether the successor commends the majority in the house the present moment, but whether it was Constitutionally correct to ask back from the CM, the letter of appointment. Just because subsequent to the appointment a bunch of politicians leapfrogged. Hence it is a question of whether it was legally right as well as morally right. From my understanding of the Constitution it was both legally and morally wrong and  I remain to be convinced.

My point is that the PM complained about having to wait long before being sworn-in following the GE14 results. In Sabah, a delay also happened in swearing in the CM but with different consequences.

Imagine if the PM was asked by the Agong to return the appointment letter just because some Pakatan Harapan winners decided to frog over to Barisan Nasional?

Would it then be a case of asking the PM to resign and not sacked?

The larger issue is also, does not what happened in Sabah raise the question, if unchallenged in the Federal Court, that to ordinary people like me, the TYT is the only head of state that can decide whether a CM that he had just constitutionally appointed can be dismissed by him within hours of doing so without going through the State Assembly, which is the rightful place to determine this.

By the same reasoning, does it not seem that the Sabah TYT may be seen to have powers that even the Agong and Sultans do not? I stand to be corrected?

Courts should have looked at whether a Sabah TYT enjoys greater powers than the Agong and Sultans in appointing the head of government and to help rectify if indeed this is the case now.

Because this problem is not addressed and peculiar to Sabah, this tendency of a Sabah TYT to delay appointing a CM has created crises on 3 occasions.

In 1985, 1994 n 2018.

Peoples voices not recognised in this 3 instances of Sabah’s political history – 1985, 1994 and 2018. In all 3 instances, the decisions took a different turn and the government was formed by frogging and other means.

In 1985, Party Bersatu Sabah (PBS) won the Sabah State election with a simple majority of 25 seats. However, PBS was not allowed to form the Sabah State Government by the Istana.

Joseph Pairin Kitingan was kept waiting for more then a day while power grab was underway in the wee hours of the morning. In which, USNO’s 16 seats collaborated with Berjaya’s 6 seats and the Sabah State Government was formed before the sun rose.

The schemers of this plan decided they can still form the government by laying claim to the 6 nominated state seat. The then Prime Minister Dr Mahathir was in Scandinavia and his deputy Musa Hitam had ordered the plotters to give up. Joseph Pairin Kitingan was then only sworn in as Chief Minister after almost 48 hours.

In 1994, something similar happened again with Pairin Kitingan and PBS as victims. This time, Pairin also won with a simple majority of 25 seats despite massive frogging by his assemblymen to government side due to the scrapping of the Anti-Hopping Law (The Barisan Nasional government challenged the Anti-Hop Law that was introduced in 1987 by the then PBS State Government in court and had it scrapped).

This time Pairin had to camp for 3 nights outside the Istana as the then TYT claimed he was too sick to open the Istana gates for Pairin to be sworn in. By the time the Istana gates were opened Pairin had already lost many of his Assemblymen and a new Chief Minister was sworn in after about a month. This eventually led to the downfall of the PBS State Government as the PBS election winners had joined Barisan Nasional parties.

In 2018, it happened again following GE14. But this time there was a major difference. While in 1985 and 1994 Pairin was not able to be sworn in instantly after the election results, this time, Musa Aman was already appointed Chief Minister after an unexplained delay of about 48 hours. And despite being sworn in with his Cabinet members, Musa Aman still lost his government to frogging.

This time the Upko boys did the frogging probably on the orders and advise of Tan Sri Bernard Dompok and despite pledging that as KDMs they will stick together and decide as a bloc and only leave the BN after consensus among themselves. Five assemblymen from Upko and one MP left BN to throw their support behind Warisan and Pakatan Harapan, a day after the general election.

Their action caused the collapse of the BN government led by former chief minister Musa Aman whose cabinet, which included two Upko assemblymen, had been sworn in less than 12 hours before.

I was there on that night of May 9th in Sri Gaya when Tangau came out and answered a phone call apparently from Dompok asking him to go to Shafie’s house in Luyang. Tangau disappeared from Sri Gaya after this phone call and headed straight to see Shafie in his house, alone, leaving all his UPKO boys with Musa Aman in Sri Gaya. Upko then switched allegiance to the Warisan-Pakatan Harapan pact a day after the election.

For how long more must Sabah continue to be the only state where the Assemblymen decides who is to form the government by becoming political frogs and not by the people who voted them?

In the end the CM is appointed through political frogs producing statutory declarations  (SD) instead of the peoples wish being respected.

 

This piece also came out in MALAYSIA TODAY. SEE HERE!!

Being played out 3 times is one too many for Sabahans

Peoples voices not recognised in 3 instances of Sabah’s political history – 1985, 1994 and 2018. In all 3 instances, the decisions took a different turn and the government was formed by frogging and other means.

In 1985, Party Bersatu Sabah (PBS) won the Sabah State election with a simple majority of 25 seats. However, PBS was not allowed to form the Sabah State Government by the Istana.

Joseph Pairin Kitingan was kept waiting for more then a day while power grab was underway in the wee hours of the morning. In which, USNO’s 16 seats collaborated with Berjaya’s 6 seats and the Sabah State Government was formed before the sun rose.

The schemers of this plan decided they can still form the government by laying claim to the 6 nominated state seat. The then Prime Minister Dr Mahathir was in Scandinavia and his deputy Musa Hitam had ordered the plotters to give up. Joseph Pairin Kitingan was then only sworn in as Chief Minister after almost 48 hours.

In 1994, something similar happened again with Pairin Kitingan and PBS as victims. This time, Pairin also won with a simple majority of 25 seats despite massive frogging by his assemblymen to government side due to the scrapping of the Anti-Hopping Law (The Barisan Nasional government challenged the Anti-Hop Law that was introduced in 1987 by the then PBS State Government in court and had it scrapped).

This time Pairin had to camp for 3 nights outside the Istana as the then TYT claimed he was too sick to open the Istana gates for Pairin to be sworn in. By the time the Istana gates were opened Pairin had already lost many of his Assemblymen and a new Chief Minister was sworn in. This eventually led to the downfall of the PBS State Government as the PBS election winners had joined Barisan Nasional parties.

In 2018, it happened again following GE14. But this time there was a major difference. While in 1985 and 1994 Pairin was not able to be sworn in instantly after the election results, this time, Tan Sri Musa Aman was already appointed Chief Minister after an unexplained delay of about 48 hours. And despite being sworn in with his Cabinet members, Musa Aman still lost his government to frogging.

This time the Upko boys did the frogging probably on the orders and advise of Tan Sri Bernard Dompok and despite pledging that as KDMs they will stick together and decide as a bloc and only leave the BN after consensus among themselves. Five assemblymen from Upko and one MP left BN to throw their support behind Warisan and Pakatan Harapan, a day after the general election.

Their action caused the collapse of the BN government led by former chief minister Musa Aman whose cabinet, which included two Upko assemblymen, had been sworn in less than 12 hours before.

I was there on that night of May 9th in Sri Gaya when Tangau came out and answered a phone call apparently from Dompok asking him to go to Shafie’s house in Luyang. Tangau disappeared from Sri Gaya after this phone call and headed straight to see Shafie in his house, alone, leaving all his UPKO boys with Musa Aman in Sri Gaya. Upko then switched allegiance to the Warisan-Pakatan Harapan pact a day after the election.

For how long more must Sabah continue to be the only state where the Assemblymen decides who is to form the government by becoming political frogs and not by the people who voted them?

Lets hope a right decision is made by the Court of Appeal on this November 28th on the appeal of Musa Aman against the High Court ruling over the legitimacy of Shafie Apdal as the Sabah chief minister.

Comparison has been made between Sabah CM row and the Perak Mentri Besar tussle. However it must be stressed that they are entirely different.

In the Perak case, the Sultan acted before the new Mentri Besar was appointed.

In the Sabah case, the worst case scenario happened, despite the CM and the Cabinet already sworn in.

In the Perak case, everyone is the Sultan’s subject and the Sultan has the right.

But in the Sabah case, it does not have a Sultan but only a Governor, who himself is nominated by politicians of the day.