KOTA KINABALU, May 13 — Tan Sri Musa Aman is not giving up the helm of the Sabah government without a fight, although he has already vacated the chief minister’s official residence Sri Gaya yesterday.
Sources said Musa’s legal team is expected to file a suit tomorrow to challenge the legality of Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal’s appointment as chief minister, just two days after Musa was sworn in.
Musa, who is state Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN) chief, is refusing to resign from the post, asserting last night that he had already chaired the first state cabinet meeting.
Nonetheless, security officers at Sri Gaya told Malay Mail that Musa had moved out about an hour before Shafie took his oath of office at the nearby Istana Negeri 9.15pm last night.
This morning, Shafie seemed unperturbed by the possible constitutional crisis taking shape, saying he will move into Sri Gaya soon.
“I am thankful to God. Whatever happens is God’s wish,” he told reporters after attending the 5th Sabah International Dragon Boat Race, his first official function as chief minister.
Although he declined to go into the specifics of his Cabinet, the Parti Warisan Sabah president said he will announce the lineup in the next one or two days and there will be two new portfolios.
“We will ensure the participation of our Warisan partners in the government but more importantly it is not about getting posts but to fulfil our responsibilities to the people.”
He also said he had spoken to Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad about the need for Sabah to be represented in the federal Cabinet and he will be nominating some names for the former’s consideration soon.
“It is important that we work closely with the federal government. We will pursue Sabah’s rights as we had promised in our manifesto,” he said.
“We love our country but we need not only to be known and respected, but whatever our rights in the Malaysia Agreement 1963 honoured and implemented effectively.”
Asked if he will fill the six nominated assemblymen’s posts as provided by the state constitution in order to cement his position, Shafie said there was no immediate need for them.
“Maybe [later] there is a need to appoint some professionals who we did not put up in the election because they were unknowns or did not have the support, but they will have the skills to enhance the government’s administration,” he said.
Shafie said he will be visiting the various government departments soon as he felt some of them had to be restructured.
In Wednesday’s general election, Warisan won 21 seats, while its allies DAP and PKR won six and two seats, respectively.
Although they have 29 seats, they still needed two more seats to have a simple majority to form the state government.
Sabah BN had the simple majority with 31 seats after Parti Solidariti Tanah Airku (STAR) chief Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan threw his support behind Musa, enabling him to be sworn in as chief minister on May 10.
However, within 48 hours, six Sabah BN assemblymen — four from Umno and two from Upko — joined Warisan, tipping the scale in Shafie’s favour to form the new state government.
