KOTA KINABALU —Sabah's state government has collapsed after the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition pulled out of the administration led by the chief minister Hajiji Noor.

Sabah Barisan chairman Bung Moktar Radin revealed the decision to pull out of the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) and BN government on Friday (Jan 6) night after chairing a two-hour meeting at Sabah Umno headquarters in Kota Kinabalu.

Barisan has 17 assemblymen and the decision brings to an end the 27-month-old government of Sabah Chief Minister Hajiji Noor.

GRS counts 29 assemblymen among its ranks. These include 15 direct members who were formerly with Bersatu, seven from Parti Bersatu Sabah , six from Sabah STAR and one from Sabah Progressive Party.

Prior to collapse, the GRS-BN state government held 46 seats in the 79-seat Sabah assembly.

Mr Bung, who is deputy chief minister, said the coalition had lost trust in Mr Hajiji’s leadership and claimed that the chief minister had violated a pact BN had made with Perikatan Nasional (PN) after the state elections in 2020.

“It is clear that he had broken our agreement by sacking Umno Usukan assemblyman Salleh Said Keruak as Qhazanah chairman and threatening us with a reshuffle," he said. He was referring to Qhazanah Sabah Berhad, a state agency that functions as a catalyst to drive Sabah’s economic development and growth in various sectors.

“We have unanimously decided to pull our support for this government and Hajiji as chief minister."

BN and GRS will now race to cobble together a new coalition to govern the state.

The government had also counted on assemblymen from Parti Kesejahteraan Demokratik Masyarakat (KDM), which has three seats, as well as PAS, Parti Bangsa Malaysia, with one assemblyman each, and one Independent, making 53 assemblymen in all.

On the opposition bench, Parti Warisan Sabah has 19 assemblymen, while Sabah Pakatan Harapan has seven — four from DAP, two from PKR and one from Upko.

Earlier on Friday, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim had said the political situation in Sabah “looks calm”.

“It looks like the situation is calm now and I don’t think there is any turmoil,” he said when responding to reporters’ questions on the latest situation in the state after performing his Friday prayers in Putrajaya.

He said he had not seen any new political developments and he was also just informed that there were some issues.

Mr Anwar said he had asked Mr Hajiji to discuss it with “our friends in Sabah”. THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT