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PETALING JAYA: The head of Sabah Barisan Nasional (BN), Bung Moktar Radin, today apologized to Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who is Chairman of BN and Chairman of Umno, for failing to comply with the party’s wishes that he be appointed Prime Minister of Sabah.
On Monday, Zahid insisted that the prime minister should be from Umno-BN, expressing concern that he would have to hand over the post to any other party. However, he later said that he accepted Gabungan Rakyat Sabah’s (GRS) decision to appoint the head of Sabah Perikatan Nasional (PN), Hajiji Noor, as the state’s prime minister.
Before the elections, Zahid had said that he was leaving the Umno-BN state leadership to decide on the matter, in accordance with the autonomy given to them.
Noting that Umno-BN only won 14 of the 32 seats contested in recent state polls, Bung said this made it difficult for the party to assume the role of prime minister.
“The polls this time around were very unusual. Each seat had many independent parties and candidates competing through various logos and garnering public support.
“I will conduct an autopsy to find out why we lost most of the seats we contested. We will also make improvements to ensure that Umno-BN can regain seats in the next elections. “
He also urged people to stop blaming the Umno leaders for the election results, saying it would not help bring down the party because of their personal agendas.
“Taking a step back does not mean defeat, but rather that we are prepared to take a great leap into the future.”
Recent state elections saw Warisan-Plus winning 29 seats (Warisan with 23 and DAP 6), PN 17 (PPBM 11, STAR 6), Umno (14), PBS (7), PKR (2) and Upko (1) . Three independent candidates also managed to secure a seat each.
The GRS alliance of PN, BN and PBS declared victory after having secured 38 seats between them.
Bung, along with STAR President Jeffrey Kitingan and PBS Vice President Joachim Gunsalam, were sworn in as state deputy prime ministers yesterday.
He was appointed Minister of Public Works, while Jeffrey took over the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and Gunsalam from the Ministry of Industrial Development.
