Putatan councillor appointments dispute
KOTA KINABALU: The swearingin of 18 Putatan district councillors will go ahead this morning (December 21) despite protest against their appointments.
Assistant Minister of Law and Native Affairs, Datuk Uda Sulai. Uda, who is also Petagas assemblyman, said the 18 councillors were appointed by the Deputy Chief Minister cum Minister of Local Government and Housing, Datuk Jaujan Sambakong.
“The appointed councillors are from Petagas and Tanjung Aru state constituencies,” he disclosed.
He said there were 18 councillor slots in the Putatan District Council.
“As the Petagas assemblyman, I submitted 18 names to the Minister of Local Government and Housing in accordance with the proper procedure,” Uda said, adding that the Tanjung Aru assemblyman (Datuk Junz Wong) also had the right to propose his candidates but the final say on the appointment rests with Jaujan.
He understands that Tanjung Aru has submitted six names after he had handed in his name list.
“I have only included two candidates from the name list submitted by Tanjung Aru to the list that I submitted,” he said.
Confirming that the 18 councillors would be sworn in today, 16 will be from the Petagas state constituency and only two from Tanjung Aru state constituency.
Uda said he had suggested to the ministry to expand the Putatan District Council to accommodate the remaining four candidates from Tanjung Aru who were not appointed.
He believed the ministry would be in favour of the proposal as there had been precedents in other district councils in Sabah.
“I urge everyone to be patient and not add fuel to the fire as it would be very unfair to me,” he said.
Uda said the swearing-in ceremony would be held at Pan Borneo Hotel at 8 am today as per the original plan.
Leaders from Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) Tanjung Aru division yesterday protested against the appointment of Putatan district councillors.
Warisan Tanjung Aru division publicity chief Ruslan bin Maksyum claimed that the appointment of the 18 councillors was unfair to the division.
He said the Putatan parliamentary constituency comprised of Petagas and Tanjung Aru state seats. As such, he pointed out that 11 out of the 18 seats at the Putatan District Council should be allocated to Petagas and the remaining seven to Tanjung Aru.
He said Warisan Tanjung Aru division had submitted six candidates to the Ministry of Local Government and Housing.
However, Ruslan said the name list of the Putatan district councillors to be sworn in today revealed that only two individuals were from the Tanjung Aru state constituency.
The remaining 16 candidates are from Petagas state constituency.
Junz, who is Warisan vice president, yesterday suggested that the swearing-in ceremony for the Putatan councillors be postponed till the issue of appointment has been resolved.
If the event could not be postponed, he said only 12 councillors should be sworn in today pending the appointment of the remaining six councillors to be finalized.
Junz said the claims made by the division, if found to be true, should be rectified.
Since the Putatan District Council has jurisdiction over Tanjung Aru and Petagas, he opined that the number of councillors should be divided reasonably between both state constituencies.
"As Tanjung Aru assemblyman, I am obliged to speak up on this matter."
He said Uda should know there was a quota for the appointment of councillors.
"So why did he submit 18 names instead of just 11 or 12 nominees from Petagas?"
Junz claimed that Uda had not discussed nor negotiated with him before submitting the name list. Hence, he suggested that the swearing-in ceremony be postponed till the issue was resolved, or to allow only 12 councillors to take their oath today pending the appointment of the remaining six councillors to be finalized later.