Azman victim of Shafie-Musa feud?

By Admin
The controversy over the sudden sacking of Sabah UMNO Youth Azman Roslan last week that had local youth leaders fuming has its roots in ongoing feud between Sabah UMNO chieftain Datuk Musa Aman and rival Datuk Shafie Adqal, according to political analysts in Sabah.

Shafie, who hails from Semporna in the east coast of Sabah, is reportedly furious that his pet tourism project, the Regatta Lepa Lepa,  to boost tourism in Semporna two weeks ago was boycotted by Sabah state ministers.

“None of the state leaders, not even the state minister of tourism, Datuk Masidi Manjun, cared to show up at the Lepa Lepa event. This was a big slap in the face for Shafie in the eyes of the local people and government officials.

The idea of the State government led by Musa is to make Shafie look small and useless,“ said an informed source in Kota Kinabalu.

Local newspapers showed only Shafie doing the “daling daling” dance. It was noticed that only fellow Semporna Minister, Datuk Nasir Tun Sakaran, a cousin of Shafie, did show up at the regatta but kept a low profile.

The other two UMNO assemblymen from Semporna, Datuk Hj. Ramlee Marahaban and Datuk Haji Harman Mohamad who are staunch Musa loyalists, were conspicuously absent.

Rahim and FELCRA


Another Musa critic in the Sabah UMNO circle is Papar divisional chief, Datuk Rahim Ismail, who was unceremoniously dropped as a state cabinet member in spite of his excellent performance as minister of agriculture before.

Rahim is currently the four-term assemblyman for Pantai Manis in Papar, about  100km south of the capital city of Kota Kinabalu. Rahim had been touted as a potential chief minister before the general elections of 2008 in view of his seniority, experience and flawless record as a state minister.

News reports recently announced Rahim as the chairman of a subsidiary company of Felcra (Federal Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority).

The last straw for Musa is the appointment of Azman to some post in the Felcra organization by Shafie which was seen as a move to build up Shafie’s UMNO base in Sabah.

It is no coincidence that FELCRA comes under Shafie who is the federal ministry of rural development.