KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Barisan Nasional (BN) is feeling marginalised in the formation of the unity government's cabinet when none of its seven Members of Parliament was appointed as full ministers.
Its state chairman Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin described the two ministers representing Sabah, each from the United Kinabalu Progressive Organisation (UPKO) which is a component of Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) as being "too little".
He said the number was disproportionate compared to the neighbouring state, Sarawak which received five portfolios including the Deputy Prime Minister's post.
"The formation of the new Cabinet of the Federal Unity Government seems to have seen Sabah being marginalised in the appointment of portfolios, especially representatives from the Sabah BN who gave an initial commitment to be with BN to support PH becoming the government and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the Prime Minister candidate.
"There is no representative from Sabah BN in this new Cabinet. Compared to Sarawak, they have five ministers," he said in a statement on the cabinet line-up announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
Sabah BN won the most parliamentary seats in Sabah with seven seats in the 15th General Election (GE15), followed by GRS (six), PH (five), Parti Warisan (three), Independent (two) and one each from Perikatan Nasional (PN) and Parti Kesejahteraan Demokratik Masyarakat (KDM).
In fact, Sabah BN also contributed the second most seats after Johor BN from the 30 seats won by BN nationwide in GE15.
Bung Moktar who is also the Sabah Deputy Chief Minister, hopes the Sabah BN being left out in the new Cabinet is not a sign that the state would be marginalised by the unity government, especially in the development aspect.
"We do not want Sabah to be marginalised once again in terms of development, especially when it comes to the implementation of infrastructure projects that are important for the convenience of the people of this state.
"The Sabah Pan Borneo Highway project, for example, must be continued and accelerated. We do not want to see this project being stalled again as had happened when PH became the government in 2018," he said.
He said Sabah also needs the attention of the federal government in resolving the issue of clean water supply that affects the people throughout the state, in addition to electricity supply and rural roads that are still not complete.
Anwar last night announced a 28-minister cabinet line-up including Bagan Datuk Member of Parliament
Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi representing BN and Petra Jaya Member of Parliament, Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof from Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) being appointed as DPMs.
Sabah is only represented in the cabinet by the Penampang Member of Parliament, Datuk Ewon Benedick (PH-UPKO) who was appointed as Entrepreneurship and Cooperative Development Minister and Papar Member of Parliament, Datuk Armizan Mohd Ali (GRS) appointed as Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Sabah and Sarawak).