UMNO Sabah berhak pilih rakan, kata Zahid

UMNO menghormati autonomi yang diberikan kepada UMNO Sabah dan kekal menyerahkan kuasa itu kepada kepemimpinan negeri bagi membuat keputusan berhubung soal parti, termasuk berkaitan Pilihan Raya Negeri Ke-17 (PRN17).

Presiden UMNO, Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, berkata perkara itu sudah diketahui dengan jelas oleh pemimpin UMNO dan Barisan Nasional (BN) di peringkat Pusat dan negeri, termasuk Ketua UMNO Sabah, Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin.

Bercakap di Kota Kinabalu Ahad lalu, beliau menafikan dakwaan mengatakan keputusan yang dilaksanakan di negeri ini dibuat di peringkat Pusat, sebaliknya menekankan kedua-dua peringkat saling berunding antara satu sama lain.

“Kita saling berunding antara satu sama lain dan saya percaya di bawah kepemimpinan Bung Moktar. Beliau bukan saja berbincang dalam kalangan pemimpin parti di Sabah, tapi juga berbincang dengan kita di Putrajaya.

Sementara itu, Ahmad Zahid berkata, soal kedudukan Timbalan Ketua Menteri Sabah, Datuk Ir Shahelmey Yahya yang digantung keahlian dalam UMNO turut diputuskan oleh Bung Moktar selaku Ketua UMNO Sabah.

Katanya, sama ada Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri (ADUN) Tanjung Keramat itu boleh diberi peluang untuk bertanding semula pada PRN17 bergantung kepada keputusan Bung Moktar.

“Mereka (Shahelmey bersama beberapa pemimpin UMNO Sabah) tidak keluar parti dan tidak dipecat, status mereka ialah digantung. Peluang untuk bertanding bergantung kepada kebijaksanaan Bung Moktar,” katanya.

Dalam hal lain, Timbalan Perdana Menteri itu mengulangi peringatannya agar slogan Sabah untuk orang Sabah tidak dibangkitkan demi semangat persekutuan Malaysia.

 

 

Sabah Umno can decide alliances, says Zahid

SABAH Umno has been given the autonomy to discuss and decide on cooperation with other parties for the state election, Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said today.

He made the announcement at the launching of the Barisan Nasional election machinery in Sepanggar, Kota Kinabalu.

“We have entrusted full autonomy to Sabah Umno. I am confident that under (state chairman) Bung Moktar Radin’s leadership, he will engage local parties and also maintain communication with us in Putrajaya,” Zahid said, according to the Borneo Post.

Zahid, who is BN chairman and deputy prime minister, said grand coalitions for the elections were necessary as no one party was capable of forming the state government on its own.

He said BN remained open to discussions with any party for the state polls, not just ruling coalition Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS).

Zahid again rejected slogans such as “Sabah for Sabahans”, saying such regionalistic sentiments should not be stirred up when the nation was “founded on the spirit of the federation of Malaysia”.

Last week, the secretariat of the unity government coalition announced that Pakatan Harapan and BN had agreed to join forces for the state polls, following a meeting of their respective chairmen, Anwar Ibrahim and Zahid.

It said discussions on the form of cooperation would be handled by the state parties but “all decisions will be finalised by the top leaderships” at the national level.

Bung later said the state chapter still retained some autonomy, namely in deciding on technical and strategic matters like the selection of election candidates.

 

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