No war against BN, says GRS
KOTA KINABALU: Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) vehemently denies the allegation by Barisan Nasional (BN) Sabah chairman Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin that it had declared war on them.
According to its chairman Datuk Seri Panglima Hajiji Noor, GRS has never declared war against BN Sabah.
“We have no reason or need to declare war against BN. In fact, in the recent election, GRS and I personally went to campaign for BN candidates in their constituencies,” said Hajiji.
The Chief Minister explained that the promise between GRS and BN Sabah made before the election was for GRS to support Umno/BN if the party qualified to become Prime Minister and form the government.
“However, when BN loses and Umno is not qualified to be Prime Minister, then the agreement becomes invalid by itself. It should also be emphasized that there are no promises made before the election with other parties including Pakatan Harapan (PH),” he said in a statement here on Tuesday.
On Monday, Bung Moktar who is also Umno Sabah chief, accused GRS of breaking their pre-election promise to support BN a er the election.
“We had an agreement that GRS will support Barisan. Hajiji has broken the deal by giving support to Perikatan Nasional (PN). He has declared war on us,” Bung said, adding that Hajiji did not call or discuss with him about GRS’ support for Perikatan.
Bung Moktar was also reported as saying that rumours of Parti Kesejahteraan Demokratik Masyarakat’s (PKDM) winning candidate in Kota Marudu Datuk Wetrom Bahanda being proxies to GRS was now evidently true.
He alleged that two other independent winning candidates, Kudat’s Verdon Bahanda and Tenom’s Riduan Rubin were also part of the pact supporting GRS, and by extension PN.
The three new MPs were spo ed in photos with Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin at the la er’s residence in Kuala Lumpur. Also present was KDM president Datuk Peter Anthony.
Hajiji denied the allegation that he had gone with the KDM president and the three MPs to meet with Muhyiddin.
“They met with Tan Sri (Muhyiddin) on their own accord and I was not directly involved in the meeting,” he said.
Hajiji also expressed hope that Umno/BN Sabah will continue to work together (with GRS) in governing Sabah in line with the mandate given by the people to the GRS-BN government in the 16th state election.