Amid coup attempts in Sabah, Anifah rallies supporters to new platform
Former foreign minister Anifah Aman may have been without a party for almost two years but he does not intend on taking a back seat in the Sabah political scene, having taken over Parti Cinta Sabah (PCS) as his new political platform.
The former Umno leader was today unveiled as the new president of PCS, which is also serving as the new home of his supporters including lawyer Ansari Abdullah.
Anifah (above) won uncontested as the PCS president during the party's Second Biennial General Meeting in Kota Kinabalu today, according to The Borneo Post.
Malaysiakini has reached out to the...
Former foreign minister Anifah Aman may have been without a party for almost two years but he does not intend on taking a back seat in the Sabah political scene, having taken over Parti Cinta Sabah (PCS) as his new political platform.
The former Umno leader was today unveiled as the new president of PCS, which is also serving as the new home of his supporters including lawyer Ansari Abdullah.
Anifah (above) won uncontested as the PCS president during the party's Second Biennial General Meeting in Kota Kinabalu today, according to The Borneo Post.
Malaysiakini has reached out to the former Kimanis MP for comment.
Ansari, who posted on Facebook about Anifah's new leadership role, said PCS will remain as an alternative to Perikatan Nasional (PN) as well as Pakatan Harapan and its allies.
Ansari told Malaysiakini that he and Anifah joined PCS early this month and their memberships were approved by the party’s supreme council on July 11.
Anifah quit Umno in September 2018, at a time when Umno was at its lowest point after the party was defeated in the 14th general election and also lost power in Sabah.
However, BN is now seeing a resurgence, having regained power in Putrajaya under a broader PN coalition.
Considerable influence
Despite being partyless until recently and without a seat to represent, Anifah has continued to play a considerable role in Sabah politics amid reports of concerted efforts by his brother Musa Aman, who was the former Sabah chief minister, to regain control of the state government.
In June, Sabah Chief Minister and Warisan president Shafie Apdal (photo) claimed that Anifah tried three times to coax Warisan’s Lahad Datu MP Mohamaddin Ketapi to switch sides.
In the past week, assemblypersons had also lodged police reports against alleging representatives approaching them at their homes to quit the state ruling coalition comprising Warisan, Harapan and Upko.
Anifah’s three sons have also reportedly threatened legal action against DAP’s Kapayan assemblyperson Jannie Lasimbang and the Borneo Today news portal over claims of their alleged involvement in efforts to woo the state assemblypersons to defect.
They have demanded a retraction of the allegations made against them as well as an apology.
The lawyers for the trio reportedly said they denied “involvement in any manner”.
Anifah lost his Kimanis parliamentary seat in 2019 when the Election Court declared the results null and void.
The court had found serious breaches in the conduct of the election process with over 300 votes improperly cast.
However, allegations of bribery and corrupt practices by Anifah were dismissed by the court.
He did not contest in the subsequent by-election in Kimanis but had supported BN's Mohamad Alamin, who won.
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