KOTA KINABALU: Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) president Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal has remained non-committal on whether the party will work together with other opposition parties in Sabah in the 14th general election.
Shafie who was met during his walkabout in Lido market yesterday morning however said that Warisan can stand alone to run the state.
The Semporna Member of Parliament said this when asked if Warisan, seeing that it has yet to take up offers from other local opposition parties to work together, will be going ‘solo’ in the coming election.
Touching on the offers to work together by opposition parties in Sabah, Shafie said Warisan is open to discussions.
“We’ll see first how everything goes and the work done. Yes, the offer is there but you have to work. That is why we are working first. There is no point of us saying that we want to share (power) but are not doing anything to fight for the people.
“Who has come out to fight the Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders? Come out fight them, after fight and then we talk. We (Warisan) know our strength. I cannot be making demands (for Penampang or Likas seats), I have to know the strengths first.
“What is important is that in our minds is to topple BN first and we must work towards that. We must not use the reason of wanting seats to unite. In our minds it must be to defeat BN first then we talk about things like policies because we do not want to be in the dark about the policies of the other opposition parties be it local or peninsular based,” he stressed.
To the question if Warisan will be going ahead alone in the election, Shafie replied, “No we are not. In life, we have to have partner to produce results and the biggest partner we have is the people of Sabah. We want the rakyat of Sabah to know us and to trust us, that is the way forward, we can do it, we can deliver. We have the experience, we can stand alone to run the state,” he said.
When asked about calls from their supporters for the opposition in Sabah to unite or they will not vote for them, Shafie stressed that the first thing is for the people to be united.
He pointed out that this is because it is not the party that will determine who is going to be the government, it is the people of Sabah who are going to vote.
That is the most crucial part of it, he said.
He was also of the opinion that power sharing between the opposition parties must be done properly and that there should be no ‘jumping’ between parties after the election.
“I am not accusing anyone but Sabah’s history has much to tell and much bitterness. It does not matter that we lost (in the election) but we have our dignity and we do not sell out to others. We have our moral and dignity.
“I also expect, I am not accusing (that) based on what had happened in the past, that in the coming election BN will be using money politics. We must learn our lesson from the past. Don’t just say ‘that was before, now it’s changed’,” he said.
According to Shafie, there is a need to change the regime in the country, not only the leaders and its policies.
“Changes must be made but not only the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Ministers. This is useless because it is still that party whose culture has been passed down to the grassroots,” he stressed.
To the question if the ‘one-on-one’ fight against BN is achievable, Shafie said that there will be many aspiring candidates in any election.
“In my 30 years experience, I have been challenged by many candidates. However, we must instill in the minds of the rakyat the importance of knowing which party and which leader(s) they want to support.
“Don’t be too worried about there being too many parties as we now have 21 political parties. We now have 60 seats but if all parties want to contest in the election how will the allocation be done?” he said, adding that how many parties will be in the coalition of opposition parties.
When asked to comment on Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s statement that the federal opposition will use a single symbol and avoid fielding multiple candidates for each seat in the 14th general election, Shafie said that that is only for the parties in Peninsular Malaysia.
“We have no dealings with them. We will support them because they are working to topple BN, that is all,” Shafie said.