KOTA KINABALU: Getting Sabahans to support national opposition parties is something Pakatan Harapan Sabah is working on.
Although the number of Sabahans who do not support national-based opposition parties is nominal, their presence cannot be denied and thus Pakatan Harapan Sabah is working hard to make them understand how important it is to support the national-based opposition parties, Sabah PKR chief Christina Liew said.
“We will deal with it but we have to make the people understand when you talk about the reform agenda and changing the government, you can’t be changing the state government only and not change the federal government. Both are equally important.
“In Sabah we have experienced in the past during the PBS time, where the then state government was unable to work with the federal government and what happened? The government collapsed. We cannot do much unless we change both,” said Liew.
DAP Sabah chief Stephen Wong said that according to a latest survey they conducted, the number of people who shared that sentiment was low and he agreed that because of that feeling some local opposition parties are taking the opportunity to use it to try to sway the people’s support.
He was of the opinion that as the number was low, the sentiment would not make any great impact in the coming election.
Liew and Stephen said this in reply to the question on what Pakatan Harapan is doing to ensure that Sabahans pit their support for the coalition in the 14th general election.
They said this at a press conference after the closing of the Sabah PKR convention by party president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail here yesterday. Stephen and representatives from other opposition parties in Sabah attended the closing ceremony.
Liew who is also Api Api assemblywoman, said that during the convention the 500 delegates had brainstormed on how to deal with this issue.
“We need to go to the ground and explain to the people that if they want to change the government, it is important that both state and federal are changed. It doesn’t work if we only become a state opposition government,” she said.
Meanwhile on seats allocation, Stephen disclosed that Pakatan Harapan Sabah will form a strong team to topple the Barisan Nasional (BN) government.
“All the opposition parties here have the same vision and that is to topple. On the seats allocation we have some structure in mind but this has yet to be finalised. We have had a few rounds of discussion (and) many of the seats have been set; just give us a little bit of time,” he said.
Liew added when the time comes the Pakatan Harapan Sabah component parties will sit down together to work something out.