Sabah Governor Will Not Abuse Position Over Political Crisis Says Hamzah

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Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin (right) says Sabah governor Juhar Mahiruddin has been a good friend since the 1990s.KOTA KINABALU: Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin says Sabah governor Juhar Mahiruddin will not abuse his position in resolving the political crisis in the state
Hamzah, who described Juhar as a good friend, said the governor is responsible for his actions, “but what is important is that if it were true we need to face a state election, then we will face it”
“Allah will know who did the right things and who abused their positions,” he said here today
Juhar had consented to the dissolution of the state assembly on July 30, paving the way for an election within 60 days, after meeting with incumbent chief minister Shafie Apdal
Musa Aman, who claimed he had the support to form a new state government, had said Hamzah and the prime minister’s political secretary had paid Juhar a courtesy call a day earlier to notify him that Musa’s new alliance was ready to take over the government
Today, Hamzah said they had discussed matters related to the future of the state
“Let me be frank with you, Tun Juhar has been a good friend since the 1990s,” he said
“There is nothing wrong for me to visit him and during our meeting, part of the things we discussed was, of course, the future of Sabah
“But the details are between him and me. I know what we discussed and he knows what I told him
“I am confident he will not abuse his position and being the head of state, let him be responsible for his actions
“If the governor had consented to the chief minister to dissolve the assembly, if the decision is genuine, then we will face it (election).”Musa and the 32 assemblymen said to be aligned to him filed an application for a judicial review of the decision to dissolve the assembly
Yesterday, the High Court said it wanted to hear further arguments on whether it has the judicial authority to listen and decide over the challenge on the authority of the governor to dissolve the assembly
On another development, Hamzah said the allowances for Rela members have been increased from RM6 to RM8 an hour, while officers will receive RM9.80 an hour
“This shows the government is sensitive to their needs so they can better serve the people. At the same time, I want to see them serving with more discipline after these improvements,” he said
He said Sabah has the most number of Rela members in the country, accounting for about 10% or 298,000 of the 3.1 million members nationwide. - FMT

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