Musa Aman

A part of the old Kota Kinabalu port with warehouse facilities dating back to the early 1900s was transformed into Jesselton Point, a modern port with a high-class ferry terminal and other facilities.

Musa Bin Haji Aman (Jawi: موسى بن حاج أمان; born 30 March 1951) is a Malaysian politician who served as the 14th Chief Minister, State Minister of Finance from March 2003 to May 2018, Member of the Sabah State Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Sungai Sibuga from February 1994 to September 2020, the former State Chairman of Barisan Nasional (BN) and United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) of Sabah.

In April 2023, He become the direct member of Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS).

He is the longest-serving Chief Minister of Sabah by holding the position for 15 years and is the older half brother of Anifah Aman, the Special Advisor to the Chief Minister of Sabah on International Relations and Foreign Investments, President of Love Sabah Party (PCS) and former Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Musa's mother is a Dusun from Keningau District, while his ancestors through his father's lineage are of mixed Pakistani and Bruneian Malay descent from Beaufort District.

He received his primary education in St. Paul's Anglican primary school, Beaufort and later attended Sabah College and All Saints Secondary School, both in Kota Kinabalu for his secondary education.

He pursue his tertiary education in Universiti Teknologi Mara or UiTM (formerly known as Institut Teknologi Mara, ITM) for his bachelor's degree in Business Administration and continued to pursue his study to obtain Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Edith Cowan University, Perth, Australia.

He was interested in the world of business since his primary school days.

In 1973, he pursue his business interests in Sandakan.

He later put Syarikat Musman Holdings Sdn Bhd under his stewardship.

He was the chairman for City Finance Berhad from 1983 until 1995.

He debuted in the 1990 Sabah state election and competed for the Sugut seat but lost to the incumbent.

On 8 March 1992, after USNO had merged into UMNO, he contested and won the Jambongan UMNO division chief's post (now known as Libaran division) and was appointed as Sabah Barisan Nasional (BN) treasurer eight days later.

He later became the chief executive of Innoprise Corporation in 1995 and also the chairman for Sabah Softwood Berhad (under Innoprise Corporation) in the same year.

On 7 March 1995, a year after BN came to power in Sabah, Musa became the director of Sabah Foundation (Yayasan Sabah), a Sabah statutory body.

In March 1999 he resigned as the Sabah Foundation Director to contest in the state elections and defend the Sungai Sibuga State Legislative Assembly seat, defeating Ramli Noordin of Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) by 4,034 majority votes, the highest majority among the 24 seats contested by UMNO.

He moved up further in his political career when he was appointed Minister in the Chief Minister's Department under Datuk Osu Sukam in 1999.

On 27 March 2001, he became the Finance Minister in Chief Minister Chong Kah Kiat's cabinet.

On 28 September 2001, Musa replaced Osu Sukam as the Sabah UMNO Liaison Committee chairman, which paved the way for him to be the Chief Minister.

Musa took over the post of chief minister from Chong Kah Kiat on 27 March 2003.

His appointment as Chief Minister marks the end of The Rotation system used in Sabah whereby the Chief Minister post is rotated every two years among the three main ethnoreligious groups in Sabah: Christian Bumiputras, Muslim Bumiputras, and the Chinese.

Soon after taking his oath of office as Chief Minister, Musa Aman outlined his agenda for the state.

He had set his priorities on agriculture, tourism and manufacturing, putting them in what he calls the state's 'Halatuju' development framework, and supporting them by placing human resource development high on his agenda.

Under Musa tourism registered significant growth; Tourist arrivals to Sabah grew from 1.25 million arrivals in 2003 to nearly 2.1 million arrivals in 2006.

The growth justified a further capital input into the tourism sector, with over RM1 billion made available via Special Tourism Fund of RM400 million for small projects and RM700 million for larger projects.

To support the second pillar—agriculture—the state government broke new ground in combining agriculture and manufacturing sectors into one by promoting bio-agriculture.

The establishment of Palm Oil Industrial Clusters (POIC) is an example of bio-agriculture that promises to move the state's agricultural products up the value chain in the commodity markets.

To support the third pillar, manufacturing, in 2006 a total of 92 manufacturing projects were granted approval in the state with a projected total investment value of RM4.9 billion.

To support the first pillar of his 'Halatuju' campaign, tourism, a commitment of RM1.4 billion in federal funds was secured towards the building of a new Kota Kinabalu airport terminal, which was completed in 2008, ahead of schedule.

Musa was accused of having close relationship with Sabah timber trader Michael Chia, where the latter was detained in Hong Kong in 2008 for trying to smuggle S$16 million (RM40 million) to Musa.

Sarawak Report further revealed that Chia was responsible for Musa's sons expenses in Australia.

Anifah Aman, brother of Musa, was also accused of being a secret beneficiary of lucrative timber licenses.

Abdul Gani Patail, the Malaysian Attorney-General who is close to Musa family, was alleged to have blocked the MACC investigation into this case.

However, Musa denied his link with Chia, while accusing Sarawak Report for defaming him.

In April 2012, Musa was linked to a timber corruption scandal as per the leaked Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) documents published by the website Sarawak Report.

On 11 October 2012, in a written reply to the Parliament, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz Said Musa has been cleared of the alleged RM40 million kickbacks for timber licences by the Attorney-General's Chambers as "the funds were contributions to the Sabah Umno liaison body and not for the personal use of the chief minister".

He also said that the Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) and Malaysian Attorney-General chamber has cleared Musa of corruption after the MACC has provided information in this case.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak refused to disclose the source of the political donation but he insisted that the money was funded through legitimate channels.

In response to the reply by Najib, Sarawak Report released another set of documents on 14 October which pointed the donors to Sabah and Sarawak timber tycoons.

On 22 October, Nazri said that Chia was never arrested and the S$16 million was actually frozen in an investment account in Hong Kong.