KOTA KINABALU: Local-based opposition parties working hand in hand with their counterparts from Peninsular Malaysia is the best way to win the next election, Pakatan Harapan Sabah leaders said.
With this in mind, Pakatan Harapan Sabah hopes the local-based opposition parties will accept their invitation to attend the launching of the coalition front on January 8, 2017.
This was revealed during a press conference yesterday by Pakatan Harapan Sabah leaders, namely acting PKR Sabah chairperson Christina Liew, DAP Sabah chairman Stephen Wong and Amanah Sabah chairman Hamzah Abdullah.
“We have extended our invitation to all opposition parties and NGOs in Sabah to attend the launching of Pakatan Harapan Sabah. This is our gesture to show that we are very willing to work together as an opposition unit to fight Barisan Nasional (BN) and we hope they will accept our invitation to attend so that we can talk.
“Pakatan Harapan Sabah’s door is always open. We are hoping that we can work out a formula so that we will be successful in our target to topple BN in the coming 14th general election,” said Wong who is also Sandakan member of parliament.
Meanwhile, Liew added, “We will have a common objective, common goal and we hope to be able to work out a win-win formula with the local parties. With the national and local opposition parties working together, I am very confident that our chances of toppling Umno and BN will be much stronger. This is what we are hoping to achieve.
“We hope it will be a gathering of all the people and leaders who have the same objective with Pakatan Harapan. With the same objective, we will be able to achieve our goal come next election. After the launching we will be very busy organizing our election machinery and come what may, we will be ready for the election,” the Api Api assemblywoman stressed.
Wong added that the invitation to the other opposition parties in Sabah was to show them that Pakatan Harapan meant business and were willing to work with everybody to achieve the common objectives.
“From day one we have said that we are ready and want to work with all opposition parties in Sabah towards that common goal which is to topple BN. We hope that all can sit down and negotiate, we are ready for that,” he said.
Commenting on the issue of a one-to-one fight against BN in the election, Hamzah pointed out that it would never be realized.
BN, he claimed, had all the means to get others to form new parties and join in the fray to upset the idea of a one-to-one fight.
“But we are all here, and we, Pakatan Harapan, have a proven track record in the two states that we administer (and) we managed to bring in new ideas that benefitted the people,” he said.
To the call by Parti Harapan Rakyat Sabah (Harapan Rakyat) president Datuk Seri Lajim Ukin for a standardized manifesto for the opposition in Sabah, Liew said that getting all the opposition parties to agree to work together was the priority.
“Once we are able to achieve that we talk about the next stage. Now let us sit down for ‘kopi-kopi’ first and from there we go step by step. We will work on unity among the opposition. With a united front we will be able to convince the people that we are serious about making a change,” she stressed.
To a question on what would happen should the local opposition parties decide not to work with Pakatan Harapan, the three leaders said “we will cross that bridge when we get to it”.
“Which party can say that they are strong? At least Pakatan Harapan has a proven track record. We cannot claim that we are very strong but we have proven that we have the support of the people,” said Hamzah with Liew adding, “You can assess from the 13th General Election results, the only person who won on his own was Sabah STAR chairman Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan. The rest were on Pakatan Harapan ticket”.
“But we will try to get everyone together. However if they disagree then we, Pakatan Harapan Sabah will make a decision on our next course of action when the time comes,” she said.
Meanwhile on the launching, Wong said that the event was scheduled at 10 am and would be attended by leaders from PKR, DAP and Amanah.
According to him, a declaration among the three parties will be signed and witnessed by leaders from their respective central leaderships.
“The declaration will also state how we are going to work together. We also have a consensus to sit down together very soon, to discuss the seat allocation for each party so as to ensure a one-to-one fight against BN,” he said, adding that the declaration would focus on Sabah’s rights and needs.