Sabah A-G quits as legal adviser

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Attorney-General Datuk Anthony Roderic Fernandez (pic) dropped a bombshell in the midst of the high-profile Mazu statue civil suit by quitting as the state’s top legal adviser.

Fernandez submitted his resignation to Yang di-Pertua Negri Tun Ahmadshah Abdullah on Friday. However, he told The Star that his resignation was due to “personal and family reasons.”

“It is just the timing. It has nothing to do with it (Mazu case),” said the 50-year-old Fernandez, who headed the state’s defence in the suit by former chief minister Tan Sri Chong Kah Kiat over the revocation of approval for the Mazu statue by the state government.

The sudden resignation of Fernandez, who was appointed for a three-year term as state Attorney-General in May 2006, came to light at the hearing of the Mazu case before Judicial Commissioner Yew Jen Kie at the High Court here yesterday.

The court was informed that a legal firm, Shelley Yap Leong Tseu Chong Chia and Co, has now been appointed by the state to represent three of the four defendants including Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman following Fernandez’s resignation.

The state’s new defence lawyer Richard Barnes asked the court to adjourn the case for three months. Lawyers for the plaintiffs did not object. The court set May 4 as the next hearing date.

Fernandez was a senior partner in the legal firm Shelley Yap before taking up the Sabah Attorney-General’s position. Chong was the retired partner of the same company.

Last week, Chong testified in the case and was scheduled for cross-examination by Fernandez yesterday.

Apart from Musa, the other defendants in the suit are former State Secretary Datuk K.Y. Mustafa, permanent secretary to the Local Government and Housing Ministry Datuk Ujang Sulani and the Kudat Town Board.

Sabah officers to take over local civil posts step by step

The Star

KOTA KINABALU: No time frame has been set for the localisation, more popularly known as Borneonisation programme, of the federal service in Sabah, Minister in Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Bernard Dompok said.

He said capable local officers were being identified to take over federal departments and agencies in the state when the time was right.

However, Dompok stressed that they would not rush the Borneonisation programme through as they did not want to cause any type of disruption to the services of the relevant departments and agencies.

"Our keenness to have locals head federal departments and agencies does not mean that the current federal officers from peninsular Malaysia were not capable but we want our capable local officers to be given the opportunity, he added.

Dompok said this to reporters after accompanying state assistant minister to the Chief Minister Datuk Edward Khoo, who is Sabah MCA chairman, in a walkabout at Donggongon town and Kepayan housing area to distribute Chinese New Year cards.

In May last year, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had assured Sabah Barisan Nasional leaders that steps would be taken to allow local officers in the federal service to take up positions within the federal service in the state.

Since then several Sabahans have been appointed to key posts, including for the position of vice chancellor of Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Federal Financial Officer and state National Registration Department.

Dompok, who is minister overseeing federal departments in Sabah and Sarawak, said that they were looking at federal agencies like Immigration Department to be headed by capable local officers in due time.

On the promised additional RM1bil federal funding for rural projects, Dompok said that the state government was finalising the various projects and would be submitting it to the federal government for the allocations announced in May.

He said the additional allocations for Sabah and Sarawak MPs would also disbursed by the federal government later this year.