Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak today said that he has accepted the resignation of Deputy Tourism Minister Sulaiman Abdul Rahman Abdul Taib.

The resignation, due to personal reasons, is effective today.

sulaiman taib However Sulaiman, 41, will remain the member of parliament for Kota Samarahan in Sarawak, said Najib in a statement today.

Najib added that he accepted the resignation after consulting the Sarawak Chief Minister and state BN chairperson Abdul Taib Mahmud. Abdul Taib is Sulaiman's father.

"I thank Sulaiman for his services and hope that he will continue to serve as a BN representative," said Najib.

Sulaiman, who is the Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu Youth vice-president, tendered his resignation letter last month following talks that he was unhappy with his post and of his inability to work with his minister Ng Yen Yen.

The minister however denied this and had asked the media not to engage in any speculations.

"This is all speculation. Did he (Sulaiman) say this was the reason for his resigning?" she had asked reporters on Dec 6.

Affected by his mother's death

Sulaiman's father Abdul Taib however had shed some light into the matter when he told the media on Dec 9 that politics was not the cause for the resignation.

laila taib mahmud sulaiman taib 290409 He had said Sulaiman's ( centre ) wish to leave the federal administration was more of a personal nature as the latter was still affected by the death of his mother, Laila Taib ( far right ), who succumbed to lung cancer on April 29.

"He was not feeling very well about six months ago so I said, well, you are the best judge for that," he had said.

However there are also talks that Sulaiman is being brought back to the state so that he could run for a state seat in the upcoming Sarawak state election, putting him in a position to succeed his father as chief minister.

Sulaiman has not responded on his resignation. He was appointed as deputy minister on March 19, 2008 when Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was the prime minister, and when Najib took over as prime minister in April this year, Sulaiman was retained in his post in the new cabinet line-up.

Sulaiman made his election debut in the 2008 general election and won the Kota Samarahan seat after he defeated Hussain Abang Apok of PKR with a majority of 11,411 votes.

The vacancy created by Sulaiman is likely to result in a minor cabinet reshuffle in the near future.