By: Datuk Teddy Chin
Hajiji and Tun Mustapha
AFTER teaching for a while, Datuk Seri Panglima Haji Hajiji Haji Noor became a radio announcer or newsreader with RTM, those days at the old Radio Sabah premises at Karamunsing.
About a year later, in 1977 he got a job as ADDO (Assistant District Development Officer) in Tuaran which prepared him for his future political career.
There are two types of ADO (Assistant District Officer).
One is the administrative one. Then you have the ADDO who is more a political appointee.
But to the general public, they won’t know the difference.
Even an ADDO is also regarded as an ADO. In a sense, he is also an ADO.
The ADDO assist the DO and CDO in rural development matters.
Those days, no PKR (now PPM) yet, only CDO (Community Development Officer) who is a political appointee, just like the PPM now who is more senior.
When Hajiji was ADDO Tuaran, the Kiulu (under Tuaran) Assembly member was the late Toh Puan Hjh Rahimah Stephens.
That’s why when Toh Puan (widow of the late Tun Fuad Stephens) died, Hajiji made sure that he paid his last respects.
By the time Hajiji became an ADDO, it was already Berjaya Government.
Either the State Government or Sabah Foundation gave away many scholarships.
Many of Hajiji’s friends got and went overseas.
So Hajiji thought why not he tried and he got a scholarship to go to US.
It was while in the US that he befriended Dr Jeffrey who is now his DCM.
Dr Jeffrey was in Harvard and among those who visited them was Pairin.
Even former DPM Tun Musa Hitam.
He studied and got his first degree in New Hampshire.
After completing his basic degree, he came home to rest for a few months.
His scholarship entitled him to go back to US for his Masters.
But fate took a twist.
While back home, he saw an advertisement in the Daily Express for a vacancy as Customs Officer. He applied.
It was a Division One post and those days not easy to become one, what more if permanent and pensionable.
Just as he was preparing to go back to America, he got news that his application to become a Customs Officer was approved.
He took days to ponder over it, weighing the pros and cons.
He decided to take the post and never went back to America again.
He was posted to Tawau and remained there for three and a half years.
Then one day the phone rang which would change his life forever.
It was Tun Mustapha, the then Usno President. Hajiji could not believe his ears.
After all, Tun was Sabah’s first Governor and 3rd Chief Minister whose name alone used to make Sabahans shake in fear during his hey days when he was CM.
Although the Tun had no official position and Usno was in the Opposition then (PBS having won), he was still revered by Sabah’s Muslims.
As fate would have it, after PBS dumped BN in late 1990, Mustapha became a Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Sabah Affairs).
A new lease of political life for him. An unexpected turn of events but good for Usno and Mustapha.
Within days of Tun’s phone call, Hajiji flew over to KK and headed straight to the Usia building in Sembulan as instructed.
With no other official position, Tun had his office in the Usia building.
Usia stands for the United Sabah Islamic Association and it was founded by him when he was CM.
It was around this time that the State Mosque opposite USIA was planned.
But by the time the State Mosque and the Sabah Foundation building were completed, the Usno government had lost and Berjaya took over.
While waiting to see the Tun, Hajiji met Datuk Karim Bujang another civil servant who was also summoned by the Old Man.
The two were merely acquaintances then and simply smiled at each other.
Tun told them to resign from their jobs to become Usno candidates, with Hajiji in Sulaman and Karim in Bongawan.
Hajiji asked for time to consider.
Tun asked him not to take too long as Nomination Day was near.
Then Hajiji went back to Tuaran to visit his mother and told her about Tun’s offer.
She told him to think carefully, now that he had a secure job as a government officer and Usno was in the opposition.
Then Hajiji told a good friend in Tawau about it.
The businessman friend encouraged him to go for it, saying that if he lost he could always come back to Tawau to work for him.
After the friend’s assurance, Hajiji decided to try, despite his mother’s advice.
Having accepted Tun’s offer, it was not plain sailing.
For starters, Hajiji was not even an Usno member and new to the party machinery in Sulaman.
So naturally the Usno members in Tuaran did not welcome him, even boycotted him.
It was only after intervention by a veteran Usno member, Hj Musa Milip, that they began to accept Hajiji but not all.
Even the handshakes were not warm at the end of the meeting.
Hj Musa advised him to keep quiet and let him do the talking.
Obviously Milip was close to Mustapha who might have asked him to help.
Because of the near boycott by Tuaran Usno and the withholding of funds meant for him, Hajiji expected to lose.
So much so that he himself went to vote only last minute to avoid the crowd as he was financially limited.
Then he went home to sleep.
A phone call woke him up hours later, saying that he had won, although with slim majority.
He could not believe his ears.
After all, his opponent was from the ruling party PBS and a former Tuaran DO, Datuk Jahid Jahim who is also both a Muslim and a Dusun.
As fate would have it, today Jahid is a Minister in Hajiji’s Cabinet.
Jahid is a Deputy PBS president now.
The good news was that he won unexpectedly and was now a YB.
But the bad news is Usno lost overall, meaning he has become an Opposition YB with limited resources apart from his salary.
But fate would take a turn as I will explain later.
Hajiji and Karim became Assistant Ministers when the BN government took over from the PBS government in April 1994.
Not everybody’s luck is the same.
When Hajiji was promoted to full Minister in 2004, Karim remained Assistant Minister. Karim did not take the offer and left to become ordinary Assemblyman.
By the time the CM was Tun Musa.
But Karim’s brother-in-law Datuk Rahim Ismail was promoted from Assistant Minister to full Minister.
Their wives are sisters, something like that. I stand to be corrected.
Hajiji was an Opposition Assemblyman from 1990 because Usno lost to PBS.
But fate turn a turn.
PBS left BN abruptly just days before polling in the 1990 nationwide or MP election, a few months after the State one.
Tun Dr Mahathir called it a stab in the back and Usno was back in BN’s favour.
Overnight, Mustapha became important and useful to Umno again.
The very next day after PBS pullout from BN, Dr M called for an emergency BN and Umno Supreme Council meeting in KL.
Mustapha being Usno President was invited to the meeting.
At that meeting, it was decided that Umno would enter Sabah and, in Dr M’s words, “immediately”.
After the meeting, Mustapha had to catch the midnight flight back to KK as polling for MP was only a couple of days away.
While waiting for the plane, TV3 interviewed him at KLIA. Mustapha, sounding angry of course, described PBS’ action as “Ini bukan perbuatan manusia. Ini perbuatan kucing…” (That was not the work of a human being but the work of a cat).
I am sure the Grand Old Man of Sabah politics meant to say Anjing (Dog) but being a senior leader with decorum, experience and wisdom, he chose to say Kucing.
A wise man indeed despite his lack of tertiary education.
Even at a time when he had every right to be angry and say anything, he chose to use his words carefully.
I mention this because being politics, you probably wouldn’t believe it if I tell you that in January 1995, Mustapha died while being a PBS member, NOT as Umno or Usno.
The late Datuk Dr James Ongkili, a former Berjaya leader who later formed Parti Rakyat Sabah (PRS) to fight Pairin his uncle also died as PBS member.
Politics!
No wonder the then Brunei weekly Borneo Bulletin said on its front page “Politics is indeed a funny thing”.
The was the heading of the caption of a photograph I sent to Borneo Bulletin sometime in 1986 I think.
I wish I can still find it in the archives.
So BN won again in 1990 nationwide election and PBS found itself an Opposition state government just like 1985.
In 1992, PBS formed what was called a PBS+ coalition government with Usno.
At that time Usno was led by Datu Amirkahar, Mustapha’s son.
Usno was given two Ministers and two Assistant Ministers.
But not every Usno Assemblymen bought it.
Those who refused to join the PBS coalition included Hajiji and Dayang Mahni.
I forgot who else, if any. They were whisked off to KL by a special plane.
Hajiji soon found himself appointed as Political Secretary to DPM Tun Ghafar Baba and had offices both in KL and KK.
The first Sabahan to be given such a honour I think.
The KK office was to enable Hajiji to coordinate Ghafar’s frequent visits to Sabah as Umno had just entered the State and Dr M put Ghafar in charge of Umno’s growth in Sabah. Umno was determined to unseat PBS one day and teach it a lesson, one way or another.
Hajiji also found himself appointed a Director of the Bank Rakyat Board.
The Bank was under Ghafar’s Rural Development Ministry.
Thus began a new chapter in Hajiji’s political journey.
When he first won Sulaman, it was beyond his wildest dream that one day he would be Political Secretary to the DPM in KL. So he had two salaries now, one from being a YB and the other as Political Secretary plus the Bank Rakay director fee.
In early 1994, Pairin called for a snap election.
Rumour had it that it was before KL could redraw the election boundaries so that it would be difficult for PBS to win again.
It was a costly mistake on the part of PBS.
It won only 25 seats, exactly the same as 1985. 25 was the magic number needed for a simple majority.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that with such a slim majority (in fact slimest of the slimest), it would be only a matter of time that your slim government would fall.
True enough, barely two months later, the PBS government collapsed when three of its assemblymen (including one appointed) jumped. That gave BN a simple majority.
A few more PBS assemblymen followed suit over the next one week especially after Pairin stepped down.
Seeing that the writing was on the wall, Pairin, being a lawyer did the honorable thing by resigning as CM.
This was after even the Istana denied that the TYT had agreed to dissolve the Assembly to enable another snap election.
Really pity the situation the Huguan Siou was in then.
Politics is dirty.
But the Malays have a saying, that if you are afraid of waves, don’t build your house by the sea.
Pairin being a former Deputy Public Prosecutor (I think) also did another honorable thing – after Tun Sakaran was sworn-in as the new CM at the Istana, he went to the CM office to hand over to Sakaran, a gentlemanly act indeed.
Sakaran escorted Pairin down the lift, holding his hand.
A senior Umno official from KL (forgot his name but the one with the bow tie) who was in the lift later described it as “the best thing that ever happened in Sabah politics”.
He was referring to Pairin’s political maturity and Sakaran’s humbleness by sending Pairin down the lift.
Touching moment. Pairin had to quit, but he did so honorably, winning respect.
Sakaran appointed Hajiji as Assistant Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports in 1994.
Hajiji then resigned his KL job to come back to Sabah and to be closer to his family.
Besides, Ghafar had by then lost the Umno deputy presidency and DPMship to Anwar.
After Culture, Youth and Sports, Hajiji also served as Assistant Industrial Development Minister and Assistant Minister to the Chief Minister.
When Musa was Finance Minister, Hajiji was his Assistant Minister.
All in all, Hajiji was Assistant Minister for 10 years.
He was Industrial Development assistant minister twice if I am not mistaken.
Dayang Mahani had better luck. She was made a full Minister.
But Hajiji never complained and went about his duties as Assistant Minister faithfully.
Hajiji’s patience and loyalty finally paid off when he was promoted as full Minister when Musa became CM.
By then Dayang Mahani had lost her job as a Minister and later YB.
In fact, in the short-lived Musa government after the 2018 election, both Hajiji and Masidi were made DCMs.
Hajiji was a full Minister for also 10 years. By the time BN lost in 2018, Hajiji had been a YB for more than quarter of a century already.
I am sure he ever thought of retiring then. But God had other plans for him.
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