By: Datuk Teddy chin
ON August 21, Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Hajiji Hj Noor dropped a bombshell.
He announced that the coming State election will be his last.
As far as I can remember, it is not every day that a Chief Minister will announce that the coming election will be his last or that he is stepping down.
Power is not something that a leader will easily give up.
The lure of power is simply too much to resist.
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad did that in 2002 having been the PM for 21 years.
Upon persuasion by the then Umno leadership, he agreed to stay on for one more year so that by the time he actually stepped down it was 22 years.
And he returned to become PM again some 16 years later.
Miracle. Historic. Salute.
But this time he stayed for only slightly more than two years.
After he was no longer PM, his so-called supporters left him one by one until he even lost the election in Langkawi (where he started his medical career) in 2022.
This is life. This is politics.
One day you are surrounded by people called ‘Tukang Angkat Kaki’; next day the same people shy away from you.
I have seen that many times in my half-a-century working life.
I saw how Tun Mustapha’s once loyalists left him slowly after Usno lost in 1976.
I saw how the ‘Tukang Angkat Kaki’ left Tan Sri Harris Salleh one by one after Berjaya lost in 1985.
I saw how former loyalists left Tan Sri Pairin after the PBS government collapsed in 1994, including his own brother.
I saw how former followers started deserting Tun Musa Aman in 2018 after he was CM for only 48 hours following the election.
I saw how former Usno leaders who prompted Mustapha to sue Pairin quietly left him after the Old Man lost the case, leaving him with the lawyers’ bills, including a QC.
Tun Mustapha told me so when I was a reporter with the Daily Express in the mid-1980s.
Some of these people who deserted Musa, including Chinese businessmen and community leaders, were among the first ones to rush to congratulate him after he was sworn-in as Governor or TYT on 1 Jan 2025.
Shameless.
Which reminds me of an incident after Dr M became PM a second time.
Marina Mahathir, the outspoken daughter of the Tun, told off a Chinese multi-millionaire if not billionaire who came to wish the Old Man Selamat Hari Raya and congratulated him for being PM again.
This corporate figure had prior to the 2018 election advised the Tun to stay out of politics and support Najib.
Instead of listening to him, Dr M led PH to victory, something which shocked Malaysians as BN/Umno had been the government since Tunku Abdul Rahman’s time in the 1960s.
BN was initially called the Alliance Party (Umno, MCA and MIC) since 1957 when Malaya became Independent from the British.
It was during Tun Razak’s (Najib’s father) time that BN was born when they roped in Gerakan, the then government of Penang under Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu since 1969.
Only after that other non-Alliance parties joined, including those from Sabah and Sarawak.
In 1974, Tun Razak visited China and paid a courtesy call on Chairman Mao.
Upon his return to Malaysia, the Razak-led BN called for election and won big as even the Chinese who used to vote for DAP or Pekemas led by Dr Tan Chee Khoon now voted for BN.
Before Lim Kit Siang of DAP became known as Malaysia’s Mr Opposition in Parliament, the honour belonged to Dr Tan Chee Koon, a medical doctor who had a clinic.
If you are his voter and are poor, he will give you free service or at least only pay for the more expensive medicine.
In the 1974 MP election, only one Opposition candidate managed to successfully file his nomination papers in Sabah.
It was still Usno government and the Chief Minister still had detention powers given by ISA.
There were all sorts of rumours as to why the rest could not file their nomination papers.
You guess is as good as mine.
MA Rahman of Pekemas managed to file his nomination papers for the Tuaran parliamentary constituency.
It was a straight fight between him and Usno’s Datuk Buja Gumbilai.
Dr Tan Chee Khoon, the President of Pekemas, managed to enter Sabah without being stopped at the airport.
Maybe the Usno government overlooked it.
He managed to speak at a rally in the old Tuaran Tamu ground, standing on a chair under the sun.
As a young Information Department officer then, I was there on duty.
Dr Tan said, among other things, that if you go to government offices in KL, the doors said Datuk this or Datuk that, and Tan Sri this or Tan Sri that.
“I don’t need a Tan Sri title, my name is already Tan….” He proudly declared, drawing laughter from the Tamu crowd.
I believe those who laughed included Special Branch officers on duty.
To conclude this part of my story, when he finally retired from politics (forgot when), probably in the early 80s, he gracefully accepted the title Tan Sri.
I think it was given by Tun Hussein Onn (Razak’s successor) for his services as Malaysia’s first Mr Opposition.
The second Mr Opposition, Lim Kit Siang also became a Tan Sri when he retired in recent years.
Coming back to Sabah, when every Sabahan was guessing who would succeed Tun Juhar as TYT, I knew that it would be Musa (at that time Tan Sri).
Musa and Hajiji go back a long way. Both Musa and Hajiji started their political careers through Usno under Tun Mustapha.
The Grand Old Man of Sabah politics appreciated Musa’s business acumen and made him Usno Treasurer in no time.
At that time Usno was in the opposition and not every Sabahan (especially those who Cari Makan) would go near Usno.
When Musa was made Usno (or later Umno may be) Treasurer, Hajiji was his Assistant.
When Musa later became Finance Minister, Hajiji was his Assistant Minister.
When Musa became Sabah Umno chairman, Hajiji took over as Treasurer. It was little wonder then that when Musa became CM, he promoted Hajiji to become a full Minister which marked Hajiji’s climb to the CMship eventually.
Hajiji’s 25-year wait starting from being an Opposition Assemblyman and then Assistant Minister, then full Minister patiently and loyally paid off.
Both Musa and Hajiji were Usno candidates in the 1990 State election, handpicked by Mustapha.
But only Hajiji won while Musa lost in Sandakan.
Hajiji has been Sulaman Assemblyman since and therefore served even longer than Musa as a YB.
Musa won Sg Sibuga eventually though in 1994 and was Assemblyman there until 2018 while Hajiji never stopped being Sulaman Assemblyman since 1990.
A record which I think only Huguan Siou Pairin can break.
Musa sued the Istana and the then CM Shafie after losing his chief executive post and even immediately after the 2020 State election, Musa still had a case against them and he stood a chance of winning.
However, after Hajiji was sworn-in as CM, Musa withdrew the case.
Hajiji had a difficult childhood, coming from a poor rural or fishing community and his father died when he barely 11.
For the next decade, his late mother was his pillar of hope and someone that he could lean on.
He grew up guided by his single mother’s words. So when his mother died in 2006 (I think), Hajiji was devastated.
Hajiji had become a full Minister in 2004 and his mother still had advice for him not to forget his roots, do a good job and not to victimize people.
Ever since becoming an Assistant Minister and later full Minister, Hajiji took good care of his ageing mother to repay her sacrifice for him.
His mother moulded him to become what he is today.
By the way, not many people know that Hajiji’s mother was a Dusun.
In other words, Hajiji is a half Dusun while his father Bajau Samah with a bit of Iranun blood.
Which perhaps partly explains why Hajiji is close to Sabah’s Iranun paramount chief (I call it the Iranun version of Huguan Siou), Tan Sri Pandikar Amin.
When Hajiji first became an Assistant Minister in 1994, his Minister was Pandikar.
And just like Hajiji, Pandikar also started his political career through Usno. Small world.
Soon after the 2020 election, Hajiji gave Pandikar a job when Usno was not even a GRS coalition and even though Usno fought GRS in the 2020 election, just like PCS, LDP, PHRS, etc.
After completing his primary school education near his village at Serusop in Tuaran, Hajiji managed to enter a government junior secondary school nearer town.
Having come from a Malay-medium primary school, he had to first spend two years as a Bridge Class student before being allowed to enter Form 1.
The reason being those days the medium of instruction was in English.
I was luckier as I only had to spend one year in Bridge Class in SMK Tamparuli in 1966 due to a change in policy.
By his fifth year in what is now SMK Badin, Hajiji had to sit for the Local Certificate of Education (LCE), a public examination conducted by the Education Department.
By Hajiji’s own admission, his family was so poor that his mother had to borrow from relatives the $15 needed for the exam entrance fee.
I mention this because it had a lasting effect on Hajiji.
That is why today as Chief Minister he made sure that allocations to help needy students either by the State Government or Sabah Foundation is increased year by year to the extent that it is now highest in the history of Sabah.
So far since he became CM the State Government has spent more than $1.3 billion already.
This year alone State Scholarships worth almost three times than the original $50 million was given.
On top of that, $200 were given to each student who were to sit for their SPM (Form 5) and STPM (Form 6) exams.
That his late mother had to borrow $15 to pay for his exam fee is still fresh in his mind.
He then entered St John Secondary School.
There, he represented his school in debates in KK in conjunction with Merdeka and Malaysia’s 10th Anniversary and won.
It was officiated by Chief Minister Mustapha, the man who would later change his life forever.
Among those who Hajiji defeated in the debates was the late Datuk Zaki Hj Gusmiah representing All Saints in Likas.
Can you imagine a boy from rural Tuaran defeating someone from a school in the State Capital? Zaki later also became an Usno Assemblyman.
Those days, government secondary schools which offered only up to Form 3 were known as GJSS (Government Junior Secondary School).
That included Hajiji’s GJSS Tuaran which later became SMK Badin. My GJSS Tamparuli is now known as SMK Tamparuli.
Both have since been upgraded to full-fledged secondary schools, not only offering up to Form 5, even Form 6 for STPM. Time changes everything.
After passing his Form 5 exam, he became a temporary teacher in Kiulu for a few months.
Those days, those with MCE could walk tall already. Can easily get a job and society respect you as an educated person. What more with a job and salary.
This article has appeared in the Daily Express.
