Sabah will work with government of the day, says Shafie
KOTA KINABALU, Feb 24 — Following turmoil with the Pakatan Harapan administration, Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal said his state government will continue working with the federal government.
The Parti Warisan Sabah president said his party had worked well with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s administration despite not being an official partner in PH.
Dr Mahathir submitted his resignation as the prime minister today.
“Whatever it is, we have been consistent in our stance; we need to work closely with the federal government, whoever the federal government is.
“The state wants to work with the federal government, we cannot operate in silo as part of the country,” he said when speaking to reporters today.
At the time, Shafie said he had yet received official notice of Dr Mahathir’s resignation.
When asked whether the state government’s stance would change once this is confirmed, he said this would be reassessed then but added that the state government would continue functioning.
“We are running the state well, we have the numbers, we still can run the state, nothing has happened, only our relationship with the federal government. We have to be focused and run the state.
“Of course, the nation is important as well, we have to be mindful of what is happening there but as I indicated, we need to work with the federal government for the people — for job opportunities, for development,” he said.
Shafie added that the state could not work in a “silo” as this would be disadvantageous.
Political analysts are predicting that Sabah and Sarawak could again be kingmakers in the race to form the new government.
Dr Mahathir’s Bersatu quit the ruling coalition today while 11 MPs departed PKR to become independent, consigning PH to being a minority government at the moment.
Sabah’s Warisan has nine MPs, followed by PPBM with five, PKR and DAP with three each, Umno with two, while Upko, STAR, PBS and PBRS has one MP each.
Sabah PKR chief Datuk Christina Liew declined to comment.
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