KOTA KINABALU (Jan 9): Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has given his blessings to Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor to remain as Sabah chief minister.

Anwar said he also wants the Sabah government to remain strong under Hajiji’s leadership. 

“We will give room to the chief minister (Hajiji) to hold discussions and find the best formula for the good of Sabah,” Anwar said.

He was speaking to reporters after a 40-minute discussion with Hajiji and representatives of the state government bloc at the chief minister’s official residence in Sri Gaya here on Monday (Jan 9) night. 

Also present was Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

Anwar thanked Hajiji and all Sabah elected representatives present at the meeting for their views, which he said were for the good of the state.

On Friday, Sabah Barisan Nasional (BN) chief Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin announced that Sabah Umno and BN were withdrawing support for Hajiji, as they had lost confidence in the latter’s position as chief minister and that there was a breach of an agreement between BN and Perikatan Nasional (PN).

Anwar went on to say that the Sabah government had an important agenda to pursue, namely the bill to hand over the power to regulate gas supply in the Sabah Legislative Assembly, in an effort to restore the state’s rights.

“An important bill (will be tabled) to restore Sabah’s rights, which I presented to the Cabinet; this is a big change and to me, a priority,” he said.

On Dec 21 last year, Anwar announced that the federal government had agreed to hand over the gas supply regulatory power in Sabah to the state government and that the matter was agreed upon as part of the federal government’s effort to honour the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).