Let The People Of Sabah Judge
The term of the Prime Minister and for that matter Chief Minister is best left to the electorate to exercise through democratic means, said Sabah Barisan Nasional (BN) Secretary Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan.
He said the proposal by United Borneo Front (UBF) Chairman, Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan to limit it to two-terms was nothing new and in fact is one of the governing models around the world.
"But there are many other countries including developed ones which do not impose limits. What is important is that Malaysia is not like other countries in Africa or the Middle East where there are no effective elections.
"Here in Malaysia, the rakyat have the democratic right to choose their leaders. This nation has consistent general elections and has held elections without fail since independence.
"On top of that, each party in this country holds their party elections regularly to pick their party leaders," he said here Wednesday.
Every time the members vote, he said they know their leader would become the leader of the government should it win the largest number of seats in the general election.
Abdul Rahman who is also Kota Belud MP said Malaysia had seen six Prime Ministers and 13 Sabah Chief Ministers.
"That is the undeniable proof that government leaderships in this country do change.
In short, we are not an autocratic state where people have no avenue to express their democratic right to choose leaders," he said.
He was commenting on Jeffrey's clarification that his call for the Chief Minister's and Prime Minister's appointment to be limited to a maximum of two terms was not a criticism about the way present leaders are ruling the country or the State of Sabah.
Daily Express Sabah: Online 15 September 2011