Gabungan Rakyat Sabah will continue cooperating with Pakatan Harapan at the coming Sabah polls, after Sabah Umno and Barisan Nasional spurned GRS as an electoral partner.
GRS chairman Hajiji Noor said the decision was made at a meeting of the coalition’s Supreme Council, taking into account the current composition of the state government.
The state government, headed by Hajiji as chief minister, was formed through a coalition between GRS, PH, three Umno assemblymen and several others, while BN (through Sabah Umno) and Warisan sit in the opposition.
Hajiji said it was the right of BN and Umno to reject electoral cooperation with GRS. “GRS has decided to continue our cooperation in the current state government with PH,” Berita Harian reported him as saying.
Last night, BN chairman Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said following a series of discussions, BN and Sabah Umno had decided “once and for all” that there will be no cooperation with GRS.
He said BN, PH and GRS had previously conducted several rounds of negotiations in both Kota Kinabalu and Kuala Lumpur within a technical committee.
“After reviewing the facts and details of the three-party talks, I conveyed to Sabah Umno the leadership’s decision … that it has decided to maintain the BN-PH cooperation,” Sinar Harian reported him as saying.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said earlier today that PH will respect BN’s decision, but will continue to discuss the matter and find a solution. “We will negotiate in good faith and find a solution,” he said.
When asked if BN’s refusal to work with GRS goes against Anwar‘s wishes, Hajiji said the political situation in Sabah is “unique and democratic”.
“This is not something new. BN has been the opposition in Sabah, but part of the government at the federal level. This is usual in politics, especially in Sabah,” he said.
Hajiji said GRS has not fully decided if the coalition will not cooperate with BN, and will make an announcement once it has done so.
Separately, he said the state government is studying the introduction of an anti-bullying law at the state level, likely to be tabled in the next state assembly session after the state polls are over.
