KOTA KINABALU, June 15 — The Sabah government was unaffected by the departure of two assemblymen from the ruling coalition, Datuk Junz Wong asserted today.
Commenting on the resignation of two assemblymen from United Party Kinabalu Organisation (UPKO) earlier today, the Parti Warisan Sabah vice president said that the Warisan-Pakatan Harapan-Upko coalition still held a strong majority in the state legislature.
“The Sabah government still commands 41 out of 60 Sabah State Assembly seats whereas PN (Perikatan Nasonal) including the two that jumped today has only 19.
“This is not inclusive of the five appointed assemblymen, and we have another quota for the appointed assemblyman,” said Wong.
He said that despite the speculation and rumours, the Warisan-led Sabah government remained intact, with most of its leaders preferring to focus on governing the state.
Wong, who is the state’s agriculture and food industry minister, said most Sabahans also wanted the government to focus on rebuilding Sabah instead of being part of a federal power play.
“Sabahans are actually very sick of all this manoeuvres that started in Peninsular Malaysia. We do not want to be a part of it.”
“We, the majority of Sabahans and the leadership of the Sabah government, want to focus on rebuilding our homeland,” he said.
Earlier today, Sugut assemblyman Datuk James Ratib and Kuala Penyu assemblyman Datuk Limus Jury announced their exit from Upko and said they would be independent representatives in support of the federal government.
They said that their move came after the change in the federal government from PH to PN, claiming that Sabah needed to be aligned with the federal power in order to truly be able to bring development to the state.
Both of them were previously from the Barisan Nasional state government before the 14th general election, with Limus having crossed over to Warisan with Upko while Ratib left Umno later on to join Upko post general elections.
Ratib said he expected more assemblymen to defect in the following days.
