The musical chair is still in play:
The political situation remains fluid with the exodus of many Umno MPs, assemblymen and division heads. The question is which party they will finally end up in.
WHERE are the nine assemblymen, four MPs, two senators and 21 division heads who quit Sabah Umno heading to?
Their obvious destination is Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia.
But in Sabah politics, the obvious is sometimes too obvious. There are betrayals, broken promises and better offers that get in the way.
Sabah Umno’s journey to Bersatu started with several meetings chaired by the party’s state chairman Datuk Seri Hajiji Mohd Noor and state secretary Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun.
A Sabah Umno division head, who was part of the exodus from the party on Wednesday to become pro-government independents, said Hajiji and Masidi had called for the meetings to discuss the direction Sabah Umno should take.
“We discussed several options. One of them was a suggestion by Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz for us to be with PKR,” he said, referring to the Barisan Nasional secretary-general who is Umno MP for Padang Rengas.
“But most of us were not comfortable with joining a multiracial national party.”
The group also discussed whether they should join Parti Warisan Sabah, which is the backbone of the Sabah government.
However, according to the former Sabah Umno division head, there were party leaders who had issues with joining a party led by their rival Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal.
The other option was for them to join Bersatu.
“Most of us felt that Bersatu was the perfect fit as it and Umno are similar,” said the leader, who did not want to be identified.
He said it was not true that Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, a former Umno vice-president, was involved in the move for Sabah Umno to join Bersatu.
“The meeting with Bersatu was led by Hajiji, Masidi and other Sabah Umno leaders,” he said.
Initially, former Sabah chief minister and ex-state Umno chairman Tan Sri Musa Aman was agreeable to the exodus to Bersatu.
However, said the source, Musa was not happy that the group would be supportive of Shafie, who is his bitter rival.
“But when Musa lost his two Sabah chief ministers’ suit against Shafie, he lost his grip on most of the Sabah Umno leaders as there was no hope for him to return as CM,” he said.
The source said it was a matter of time before they joined Bersatu.
“It all depends on the Prime Minister’s busy schedule when he can find the time to launch Bersatu in Sabah. It will most probably be next month,” he said.
After GE14, Sabah Umno won eight of the 26 parliamentary seats in the state and Labuan.
However, Kimanis MP Datuk Seri Anifah Aman and Labuan MP Datuk Rozman Isli left the party in September and October respectively.
Umno Sabah was left with six MPs. On Wednesday, four announced they left Umno, while the status of Sipitang MP Yamani Hafez Musa is still a question mark.
Yamani, who is Musa’s son, has not been sworn in as an MP and there is no official announcement by him or his father on whether they were staying put or leaving Umno.
The last man standing in Sabah Umno is supreme council member Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin. The Kinabatangan MP was appointed Sabah Umno chief almost immediately after the exodus.
On why Bung Moktar did not join in, the source said he was a “hot potato”.
“He was not invited to join our group as he is not in the good books of Dr Mahathir,” he said, referring to Bersatu president Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
There is a possibility that not all the former Sabah Umno lawmakers and leaders will join Bersatu en bloc.
A Warisan source said the Sabah-based party was concerned with the recent political development as there was an understanding with Bersatu for the party to be representing Bersatu in the state.
“We are a multiracial party. We took on Umno in Sabah. Now, Umno is dead in Sabah, only to be replaced by Bersatu, which many Sabahans see as Umno 3.0,” he said.
Warisan, he said, had sent feelers to some of the former Umno MPs and assemblymen.
“Don’t be surprised if some of them join Warisan instead.
“One of the scenarios could be the MPs join ing Bersatu to strengthen Dr Mahathir at the federal level while the assemblymen join Warisan to strengthen Shafie at the state level.
“This is Sabah. Anything can happen. Nothing is concrete as things are very fluid,” he said.
However, the source said leaders loyal to Musa would not join Warisan as supporting Shafie was a big “no” to them.
To confuse the matter yesterday, there was speculation by people close to Anifah that the Kimanis MP would be starting his own party.
“They are floating a balloon to see whether the former Sabah Umno leaders will join Anifah,” said the source.
The talk is Anifah could form a Sabahbased bloc of MPs with some of the former Umno MPs as well as PBS president and Kota Marudu MP Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili and Sabah STAR president and Keningau MP Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan.
Hours after such speculation went viral on WhatsAppp and was reported on news portals, Anifah said it was just speculation.
Who will be the next prime minister is a numbers game. Warisan, Bersatu, PKR and Umno will want to have a sizeable number to remain in the game.
There will be betrayals, broken promises and better offers from these parties to round up the now partyless, former Sabah Umno lawmakers.