Musa Aman purging Umno Sabah

Friday, January 27, 2006


Malaysia Today

There is clearly unity in Sabah. Sabahans from Umno, PBS and Berjaya are all united. But they are united against Umno Sabah Chief and Chief Minister Musa Aman. It is unfortunate that the unity is not within Umno Sabah but amongst those out to see the downfall of Musa Aman. And they are not concerned even if this means the downfall of Umno Sabah, as long as they can drive Musa Aman out of office.

At last count, 20 of the 25 Umno Divisions in Sabah are opposed to Musa Aman. It used to be 19. Recently, however, Musa Aman’s strongest supporter, Umno Sabah Information Chief, who is also the Papar division head and State Agriculture and Food Industries Minister, Datuk Abdul Rahim Ismail, joined the group.

Those in support of Musa Aman are dwindling very fast.Yesterday, Rahim Ismail became the first casualty in Musa Aman’s effort to purge Umno Sabah of dissidents and those opposed to him. Officially, of course, Rahim Ismail “resigned from his post to spend more time on his duties as the state Agriculture and Food Industries Minister”.

This is of course a smokescreen and meant to cover the fact that Umno Sabah is in serious trouble. The truth is: Rahim Ismail told Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi that if Musa Aman leads Umno in the next election, then Sabah will definitely fall to the opposition. And Musa Aman did not take kindly to this report Rahim Ismail gave the prime minister.

The head of the Sipitang division, who is also the Assistant Minister of Finance, Datuk Sapawi Ahmad, has replaced Rahim Ismail and this has outraged him -- who would be expected to step up his efforts to accelerate Musa Aman’s downfall.Expect more heads to roll soon as Musa Aman panics even more.

What triggered off this panic was Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s visit to Sabah recently. Many from Umno as well as PBS and Berjaya met him to express their desire to join Parti Keadilan Rakyat. Whether they believed in the party’s struggle or ideology is another matter altogether, but what they do believe is that Anwar Ibrahim could be that catalyst to see the end of Musa Aman’s and Umno’s rule in Sabah.

To the Sabahan mind, the issue is quite simple. Musa Aman is not local, he is a Pakistani. He also represents Federal interests, meaning Umno, a party that is colonising Sabah. “Sabah for Sabahans” is the rallying call in Sabah. And that is what got the younger Kitingan brother detained under ISA when the elder brother was the Chief Minister at the time PBS was ruling Sabah.

Anwar Ibrahim is due back in Malaysia next month and he is scheduled to make another trip to Sabah. Mere news of Anwar’s impending visit is enough to excite Sabah politicians, some who have even contacted Malaysia Today to enquire on how they can reach Anwar so that they can discuss his next visit.

Musa Aman tried to block Anwar’s functions by instructing all the local councils to cancel the bookings of the various halls that had been slotted as the venue for Anwar’s ‘meet the people’ programs. What riled Musa Aman was the fact that some local council heads are ABIM members and understandably pro-Anwar.

Talking about ABIM, is not sacking Rahim Ismail and replacing him with Sapawi Ahmad ‘out of the frying pan into the fire’? Maybe Musa Aman does not realise it, but Sapawi is also an ABIM man and pro-Anwar Ibrahim who may prove more dangerous than Rahim Ismail.

Never mind, Musa can always remove Sapawi and replace him, yet again, with someone else. But who is there left whom he can trust? Not too many actually! Maybe Datuk Haji Musbah Hj Jamli, the Kota Belud division head, could be one name to be considered. But hold on! Is he not Datuk Seri Panglima Haji Osu Haji Sukam’s man? And is not Osu Sukam also one of those opposed to Musa Aman?