KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman is fighting a bitter battle for survival following a fallout with Barisan Nasional coalition member, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
Musa has so far ignored mounting pressure to tone down his dictatorial style of administration but worryingly for him, his coalition partners have not rallied to his support following the latest crisis in confidence of his leadership.
The state BN chairman was the subject of a scathing attack by LDP leaders this week for refusing to tolerate criticism of his handling of several issues in the state that they say is crippling their effectiveness in the coalition.
LDP vice president Chin Su Phin who this week said that the party could no longer work with Musa as it had lost faith in his impartiality in handling sensitive issues, has received tacit support from his colleagues apart from Sabah MIC.
Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) leader Joseph Pairin Kitingan as well as United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko) chief Bernard Dompok have so far been evasive about the Musa's tenure.
To counter this, the Chief Minister has got his own people to say that some LDP leaders are conniving with others to topple him.
Sabah Umno deputy chairman Salleh Tun Said, who recently made a comeback into the party and BN hierarchy after being sidelined by Musa, became an unlikely spokesman and supporter of the chief minister yesterday.
Hidden hand
He equated the attack on Musa as an attack on Sabah BN and said that the coalition would not be intimidated by the challenge.
“We are prepared to face the worst challenge,” the former chief minister said in statement when questioning the rationale behind Chin’s outrage on Tuesday.
He believes that it is part of a plot to oust Musa and is also convinced that there were ‘hidden hands’ behind it.
“We believe there are people behind it and we know what they are up to, but we in Sabah BN will not allow them to achieve their selfish agendas by mounting a personal attack on Datuk Seri Musa.
"I have reliably learnt that certain LDP leaders are in cahoots with certain quarters to topple Musa, and that they even plan to request Prime Minister cum BN chairman Najib Tun Razak, to have Musa removed," he claimed.
However, Salleh singled out only the LDP vice president for censure and threw a fig leaf to others within the party to distance themselves from Chin’s statement that the party would not work with Musa.
Chin however was at pains to point out that LDP was only unconvinced with Musa's leadership and had no quarrel with Umno and BN as a whole.
He assured that the party would continue to support and work together with Umno in the ruling coalition, and expressed full support for Prime Minister and his 1Malaysia vision.
Salleh, meanwhile expressed confidence that all other state BN component parties would continue to rally behind Musa, especially citing that the latter has proven his leadership in steering the state since he became Chief Minister in 2003.
Najib's assurance
Alarm bells started ringing for Musa as far back as two months ago when Najib said that political changes coming to Sabah would be for the good of Sabahans.
The prime minister was, however, quick to add that no decision had yet been made about the state's political leadership.
"Leave it to me to decide what is best for Sabah. At the moment don't get excited about anything," Najib said in late June when queried about numerous speculations within political circles and media reports especially on websites.
He cautioned that there was too much internal politicking and he indicated that he was disappointed with some within the Sabah BN leadership.
"There is a lot of politicking internally, my advice is that to concentrate on serving the people. The most important thing is to serve the people and we must show we are the party that cares. This is the most important thing for me," he added.
Najib, made the statement during a one-day visit to open the National Quran Recital competition in response to persistent talks about changes as well a public quarrel over seat sharing and demands between state BN components.
Najib said that the demands and requests made by the coalition component parties were due to pressure from the grassroots and the BN constitution allows for them to speak up.
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