Sabah corruption: Umno adds pressure on challenge to sue whistleblower

Sabah Umno has joined the call for the state’s chief minister Hajiji Noor and others implicated in a corruption scandal to take legal action against a whistleblower.

This is after the whistleblower released a slew of videos and challenged Hajiji to sue him when the latter again dismissed his allegations.

In a statement posted on Sabah Umno information bureau’s Facebook page, the bureau’s chief Suhaimi Nasir (above) said the corruption allegations are damaging to Hajiji and his administration, as well as the faith of the people and investors towards it.

“The state administration is responsible for ensuring it operates with integrity and free from any element of slander or baseless accusations.

“Therefore, the chief minister and the assemblypersons implicated should lodge police reports and file lawsuits to deliver a strong message that false accusations will not be tolerated and to allow truth to be upheld,” said the Libaran MP.

‘Like a great typhoon’

His statement is echoed by Kalabakan Umno Youth chief Mohammed Alias Udin, who likened the seriousness of the allegations to a “great typhoon” sweeping through the state.

Acknowledging the denials by the parties involved, he said, “Therefore, I as a youth in Sabah want to see truth and justice to be upheld by challenging the assemblypersons involved to sue and lodge police reports to individuals who spread the video, so a full investigation can be conducted to clear the names of the assemblypersons claiming to have been slandered.

“I felt strange because, from what I understand, not a single assemblyperson involved is said to have lodged a police report against the disseminators.

“Why? Be brave, because you are on the side of truth.”

At least one of the assemblypersons - Tempasuk’s Arsad Bistari - has lodged a police report claiming his conversation in the video had been edited. The report was lodged on Nov 17.

Apart from challenging Hajiji to take legal action, several leaders from Umno Youth have previously called for his resignation.

Vidoes dismissed as edited, unfounded

On Tuesday, a whistleblower released seven videos implicating several assemblypersons in purported discussions about bribes in exchange for their support in the whistleblower’s application for a prospecting licence for mineral resources.

This came on the heels of the release of four videos of the purported discussions, two of which were incomplete, last month.

The whistleblower’s lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah explained the release of the full videos on Tuesday was done in response to discouraging replies he received for his plea for legal immunity under the Whistleblower Protection Act 2010.

Shafee also said the whistleblower’s dare for those implicated to sue him was so that the full videos could be released in court along with other information that could strengthen his case.

However, Hajiji dismissed the videos as “edited” and the allegations against the assemblypersons were unfounded.

He claimed the videos were a bid to destabilise his administration after a failed bid to apply for a prospecting licence.

In a previous denial, Hajiji also claimed that technological advancements such as artificial intelligence were being used against his government as the state election drew closer.

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