Agaknya, siapa kat belakang diorang ni ye ? Bid to halt Chinese from becoming Sabah chief minister KUALA LUMPUR, March 23 (AFP) - Three businessmen have challenged the appointment of an ethnic Chinese as chief minister of Malaysia's Sabah state under a system of rotating the post to accommodate different ethnic groups. The Sabah government said Friday it would apply to set aside a court injunction filed by the three seeking to halt the swearing-in of Chong Kah Kiat on March 27. Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad last week named Chong, president of the Liberal Democratic Party, to succeed Osu Sukam from the nationally ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). Under the system, introduced after Mahathir's National Front coalition came to power in 1994 state elections, the post is rotated every two years between parties representing Sabah's main ethnic groups -- Malays, Kadazans and Chinese. Current chief minister Osu was quoted by the Bernama news agency as saying that he had instructed the state attorney-general's office to file an application to set aside the injunction. The businessmen who are UMNO members -- Kaiman Buangan, Abdul Rajik Arin and D.Ismail Jamlang -- have contended that Chong's appointment was illegal and unlawful, the New Straits Times reported. In their affidavit filed Thursday, they said Chong's party did not command the majority in the state assembly and that there was no provision in the state constitution for the post to be rotated. Chong's party holds two out of 54 seats in the state assembly. UMNO has the majority of 29 seats. The Sun newspaper said the three also applied to the court to declare the appointment of two previous chief ministers as null and void until a decision was made on whether the rotation system was legal. They sought a declaration that all policies and decisions made under the tenure of Chinese leader Yong Teck Lee (1996-1998) and a Kadazan, Bernard Dompok (1998-1999) were illegal, it said. Bernama quoted Sabah UMNO information chief Karim Ghani as saying Friday that the move by the three businessmen was in their personal capacity and had nothing to do with the party. Sabah in the northeast of Borneo island is the second largest but one of the poorest of Malaysia's 13 states. The former British colony joined the then-Federation of Malaya in 1963. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright � 2000 AFP. All rights reserved. All information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the contents of this section without the prior written consent of Agence-France-Presse. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Global Internet phone calls, voicemail, fax, e-mail and instant messaging. Sign-up today at http://www.hotvoice.com
