KOTA KINABALU: Newly appointed Sabah Chief Minister Tan Sri Musa Aman chaired the first Sabah State Cabinet meeting at the Sabah State Administrative Centre today.

Among those in attendance were the three Deputy Chief Ministers, Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan, Datuk Seri Panglima Hajiji Mohd Noor and Datuk Seri Panglima Masidi Manjun.

Matters discussed were on strengthening the administration by restructuring and streamlining several ministries so as to execute its functions and objective more effectively, a press release from the Chief Minister’s Department said.

After the meeting, he left the building just before 3pm without speaking to the media who had been waiting there since noon.

Prior to the meeting, Musa had an audience with Head of State Tun Juhar Mahiruddin at the Istana Negeri at 10am. The meeting lasted about half an hour behind closed doors.

Bernama reported that State Secretary Tan Sri Sukarti Wakiman and State Attorney General Zaleha Rose Pandin were also present at the meeting with Juhar. Both declined to speak to the media after the meeting.

Meanwhile Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan who obliged the media said that the meeting was attended by all the cabinet ministers and only administrative matters were discussed.

Musa did not say anything about his meeting with the Head of State, said Jeffrey to a question by the media.

When asked to verify that there will be the swearing in of a new Chief Minister later tonight, Jeffrey said replied, “No idea, (but) how can swearing in two chief minister’s?

He also said that any question about Musa’s resignation as Chief Minister must de directed to the latter himself and stressed that the matter was not discussed in the cabinet meeting.

Jeffrey was also asked to confirm if newly appointed Malaysia Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahatir Mohammad is coming to meet with Musa to which he replied, “(I have) no idea. Is he coming? I heard rumours (too).

He continued, “do you think it is appropriate to ignore the constitution? And have repeat of 1994 or 1995? We should protect the constitution and the institution’s democracy and government and the mandate of the people.

Jeffrey’s opinion was that if you allow people to buy in and out then you are destroying the mandate of the people.

“So I think they should respect the Constitution and the Institution of government. You cannot be playing with the rights of the people. The Sabah Constitution is Sabah’s constitution. How can the federal government or whoever bully the state government the same way it did in 1985, 1994?

“People have to stand together and stand for Sabah. You cannot go around and repeat the same thing all over again and create chaos in the country. This is not democracy and it is not good for the stability of the nation,” said Jeffrey.

Asked to comment about Warisan Sabah President’s Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal’s statement that he now has the majority with 35 seats, Jeffrey pointed out that it was not the case at the time the state cabinet was sworn in, on May 10.

Barisan Nasional and STAR did with 31 seats while Warisan and Pakatan Harapan only had 29, Jeffrey stressed.

“Now they want to bully here and there. So we have to stop this joke, if you want to see the growth and stability of the country, the rights of the people, the democratic institution, justice, you have to let the country move on and lets walk together, I think that’s what is important.

“Work together…we don’t mind working together,” he said.