Hajiji Noor turns his quest for power into an art
Hajiji Noor, 66, cuts a demure figure. His friends say he is soft spoken, kind and approachable. But behind that staid exterior rages a ruthless spirit hell-bent on crippling his opponents in order to keep his Sabah chief minister’s post that he almost lost. And he has turned his quest for power into an art.
In his second year as chief minister, Hajiji’s trouble started after the Perikatan Nasional coalition, of which his peninsula-based Bersatu Party was a member, failed to form a federal government in a hung parliament. The King picked Anwar Ibrahim as the new prime minister and gave him the task to form a coalition (‘unity’) government which excluded the PN but included the soundly trounced Barisan Nasional, of which the United Malay National Organisation is the key member. The PN was the second biggest winner with 74 seats against 81 of Anwar’s Pakatan Harapan. BN has 30; 26 of which belong to Umno.
Events that followed last year’s result of Malaysia’s federal election had momentarily upset Hajiji’s hold to power. But they turned out in his favour. It was not so much his brinkmanship in warding off challenges from his opponents that he was able to force the hands of prime minister Anwar Ibrahim into supporting him and his new Sabah government. Luck was on his side. Bung Moktar Radin, his deputy who tried to oust Hajiji, does not command the confidence and unequivocal support of his Umno assemblymen and those of other parties. They prefer Hajiji.
As fickle as most Borneo politicians are, Hajiji has no qualms in dumping PN on the quick to support Anwar. This is not the first time that he has defected. In 2018 he wasted no time in quitting the defeated Umno which had afforded him rich ministerial posts and all the trappings of government for 30 years. Umno lost the national election for the first time in 62 years. He defected to Mahathir’s winning Bersatu.
Every parliamentary seat was precious to Anwar as he raced to shore up support for his government. Hajiji’s six parliamentary seats in his Gabungan Rakyat Sabah were thus very attractive to him. But the stumbling block to his hold onto power was Sabah Umno which has 13 state seats from the 2020 election that could derail his state government. Although Sabah Umno has some autonomy to form alliances, Bung Moktar Radin, its chief, was set back by opposition from five of his lawmakers to form a coalition government with the opposition Warisan party which is in Anwar’s unity government. They scuttled Bung’s plot by supporting Hajiji who quickly engineered crossovers from Warisan to bolster his hold onto government.
The ease with which Hajiji won defectors may speak of his arresting confidence and generosity in government appointments. But he is ruthless enough to stem dissent from his party and coalition members. Once he had the number, he swiftly sacked Bung from his government. Many are just as put off by Bung’s rashness and impatience to topple Hajiji. And his sacking did not raise an eyebrow nor elicit much sympathy even from his supporters. Bung’s ambition to become chief minister is no secret. And sensing an opportunity, he abruptly ended Sabah Umno’s pact with GRS saying the federal election result needed a remake of the Sabah government. The first sign that Hajiji was no pushover was when he sacked Umno’s Salleh Said Keruak from Qhazanah Sabah Berhad, a state investment company, over the sale of Qhazanah shares in a subsidiary company. Ironically it was Salleh, son of the late Bajau chieftain Said Keruak, who founded Qhazanah, then known as Warisan Harta, when he was chief minister 28 years ago.
Bung’s failure to wrest the chief ministership from Hajiji allowed Hajiji to consolidate his power. The registrar of societies also lent Hajiji support by declaring his GRS to be a political party and not just a coalition of parties since it accepts individuals as members. So, far from being without a party, Hajiji keeps his status quo as chief minister. Luck was on his side too when he took over one of his coalition parties which shares the same abbreviation of his GRS coalition, the Gagasan Rakyat Sabah party which has not won any seats. And Anwar and his deputy Zahid Hamidi flew into Kota Kinabalu to give Hajiji the support he yearned for. To do otherwise would have threatened his fragile unity government. Bung was devastated; having expected his president to back him.
For now Hajiji and Anwar are well entrenched in governing. Having won an almost two-thirds majority in the state assembly through defections, Hajiji dismisses the threat from Bung and Shafie Apdal’s Warisan. The lack of state laws to stop lawmakers from switching parties has worked well for him. Only Warisan which badly suffers defections laments over their absence. And Hajiji is in no hurry to enact them.
Anwar and Hajiji are aware that they can lose power in a blink. A federal anti-party hopping law does not stop political parties from withdrawing parliamentary support for Anwar. When that happens Hajiji is ever ready to form new alliances.
Sabah Insights 