KOTA KINABALU, June 18 — Sabah chief minister Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal said that a snap election in the state was unnecessary given that his “Warisan Plus” administration has a comfortable majority to govern the state till its term ends.
Shafie, whose Parti Warisan Sabah works with Pakatan Harapan and Upko to run the Opposition state, said he was not shaken up by intimidation and harassment tactics to cause political turmoil and was focused on the administration of the state.
“Why should I?” he said when asked to comment on a statement by DAP’s Sri Tanjung assemblyman Jimmy Wong that a snap election would be the best way to prevent a “backdoor government”.
“I don’t want to stop people from having their views but I also have the right. Let me focus on the state, not running elections, jumping here and there, buying this and that. Let me fix the economy,” he said.
Shafie said that the state government was stable, with 45 state assemblymen, including nominated assemblymen, in the 65-member House.
“We are not a hung assembly. We have the numbers. Even with a few jumping ship, we are still the government of the day. We don’t want to stop anybody from saying anything, but we won’t dissolve the state assembly,” he said.
Shafie’s government has been fending off rumours of a toppling since the federal government changed hands. Some rumours came to be true with the exit of two Upko assemblymen — Sugut rep Datuk James Ratib and Kuala Penyu rep Datuk Limus Jury — on Monday.
He, however, brushed off claims from Ratib that more assemblymen will follow suit.
“Well this is Covid politics. We will handle it. We cannot avoid it. We know they have been on the fence from before. They have lots of excuses, like wanting a close relationship to the federal government in order to develop their constituencies,” he said.
Shafie said that both the assemblymen were not new or first term assemblymen and have not developed their constituencies in all the time they were in government.
“So it’s not about being aligned with the federal government. It’s more important to know how to stand up for state rights at a national level,” he said, adding that at the end of the day, it was within their right to leave,” he said.
Shafie reiterated that he was confident in his people who have so far weathered all kinds of tactics that were part of a “grand plan” by the Perikatan Nasional government to topple the state government.
“Whatever the political interference, we will face it as a team. If they had the numbers, I’m sure they would have administered the state and country long ago.”
