The current political landscape in Sabah is dominated by two
heavyweights – Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman and Federal Minister for
Rural and Regional Development Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal.
It is a fact that
Musa Aman and Shafie Apdal are currently the two most powerful politicians in
Sabah, each with their own supporters and detractors.
But it is also no secret that Musa Aman and Shafie Apdal don’t see eye to
eye, let alone talk to each other.
Even if their paths do cross
inadvertently, be it at official functions or party gatherings, they quickly
shake hands, mumble greetings and turn the other way around.
But more than a decade ago,
both men were good friends.
Situation, circumstances
and the people surrounding them is certainly to be blamed for the animosity between
these two astute, intelligent and shrewd politicians.
There is also a third force active in Sabah politics
that want to see both men removed from their respective positions and this was
the group that initially started to pit Musa with Shafie, and vice-versa.
This third force comprises
few shadowy characters within Sabah Umno itself and from component parties in
Sabah, not to mention those who have a beef with either Musa or Shafie.
Some party veterans in
Sabah claim the political rift between Musa and Shafie is beyond repair, but
others believe they will readily bury their hatchet if the situation warrants
the need for them to work together for a greater cause.
Shafie hails
from a family with deep political ties with Umno.
His uncle (mother’s
brother) is Tun Sakaran Dandai, Sabah’s first Chief Minister from Umno.
For more than three decades, the families of Sakaran Dandai
and Shafie Apdal have worked and struggled for Umno.
There is no question on their loyalty to the party.
Sakaran Dandai and his colleagues
prepared the framework that played a pivotal role in Sabah Umno becoming a
dominant party in the state in the 90s.
Shafie is a close
confidant of Prime Minister Najib Razak and served as Deputy Defence Minister
when Najib was Defence Minister between 1999 and 2004.
Over the years, Shafie has earned Najib’s trust and their relationship
has grown beyond politics.
Najib feels secure when he is with Shafie. He never
has to second guess or doubt Shafie’s loyalty unlike a few other politicians
within the party.
Musa on the other hand,
never had that kind of relationship with Najib.
But he made efforts to
become close with the First Family and eventually earned the trust of First
Lady Rosmah Mansor.
It is a known fact amongst senior Sabah politicians that Musa has
Rosmah’s ears.
And in his own way, Musa has proved his loyalty to
Najib and takes great effort to maintain strong ties with Putrajaya.
Much of the bad blood
between Musa and Shafie started more than a decade ago when both politicians’
careers started to rise.
Shafie rose to prominence in the Federal scene while Musa took the top
job of running the state.
While it is not really
possible to pinpoint the one single cause that led to the cracks in their
relationship, many believe it was over the way Shafie and Musa handled the
state’s coffers.
Shafie was known to be
generous while Musa was very selective about spending, to a point that prudence
was the keyword.
Camps
aligned to Shafie become unhappy with Musa’s management of the state while
camps aligned with Musa became unhappy with Shafie’s way of doing things in the
state as well as federal level.
All this infighting gave a splendid opportunity for the third force
within Sabah’s political echelons to further aggravate the situation between Musa
and Shafie.
There are also stories on
how Shafie’s powerful Rural Ministry with billions under allocation refused to
hand over it funds for Sabah to Musa because of the people associated with
Musa.
It is learned that
Shafie’s camp was concerned that the funds might not reach the intended people
but end up in the wrong hands.
Musa’s camp, on the
other hand, was angry that only people deemed aligned to Shafie were getting
lucrative infrastructure contracts.
Each time the rift became wider, and more controversies surfaced, the
third force was smiling gleefully.
But unknown to Shafie or
Musa, the third force was actually monitoring their each and every move, and were
secretly hatching more plans to topple them.
It will
not be wrong to say that the controversies involving Musa (over the Michael
Chia money laundering scandal) and Shafie (for his alleged affair with an
actress) were linked to the third force.
But controversies alone were not sufficient to
bring down any of the two.
In fact, both Musa and Shafie walked away unscathed from their scandals.
Shafie continued to enjoy support as Umno vice-president while Musa gave Barisan Nasional its two-third
majority in the State during the May 5 General Elections.
As the nominations for
the Umno elections drew closer, elements of the third force at work surfaced
again.
Musa was being pushed by 'some' quarters to contest for the VP’s post and several divisions immediately threw
their support for Musa.
This
started to give PM Najib a headache.
Not wanting to take
sides, Najib picked up the phone, called Shafie and Musa and told them both to
sort things out amicably and revert to him on their decisions.
Some insiders say Najib
told Musa to concentrate on the state as he was doing a great job but
nevertheless, did not force Musa to stay
away from the contest.
On the morning of Sept 15, Musa called Najib to inform his decision and
then later the same day, broke his silence to the media by announcing that he
is not contesting the VP’s post, let alone defend his post in the Umno Supreme
council.
Musa made his intentions
clear that he is just going to concentrate on developing the state.
Shafie heaved a huge sigh of relief at this news and immediately thanked
Musa for the decision – albeit not personally but through the media.
All this was done in a
gentlemanly manner by both Musa and Shafie.
Shafie went on to say in an article which appreared
in the Star on 23rd September 2013 (page 7): “I do not have any
personal conflict or ill-feeling towards Musa. Maybe we have some differences
in our approach but that is normal. To say that we cannot work together at all
is not right”.
Suddenly, those who made noises from the background became silent and
retracted to their hiding.
The third force was caught off guard. Their plans backfired.
For the first time, Shafie and Musa nailed them at their own game.
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