KOTA KINABALU: Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) advised Gabungan Sabah secretary Edward Dagul to not be overly excited about the party’s resolution to collaborate with other state opposition parties to ensure a credible challenge against Barisan Nasional (BN) on the much-talked-about upcoming state election.
Christopher ‘Toguk’ Masudal, a special officer to Penampang MP Darell Leiking, pointed out that Warisan made the announcement so that Sabahans would be clear on the party’s stance with regard to any possible collaboration with other opposition parties in Sabah.
“As a responsible political movement, Warisan has embraced what the electorates want, which is to be a party that is credible and a trustworthy alternative to the current regime. These expectations would also be extended to whoever Warisan makes its pact with,” said Masudal in a statement here yesterday.
“Sabahan voters are a very smart lot indeed; they want and are ever willing to allow for a change of government (which they had repeatedly done previously).
“What has held them back thus far is whether the expectations by the electorates can be first met by all the political movements, and also the sense of distrust and insecurity Sabahans have towards some of the opposition leaders in Sabah, for reasons best known to the electorates,” he claimed.
Masudal also said Warisan understood that it would be a grave mistake to assume that the electorates would support “any opposition party” just because the party was not part of the BN coalition.
“Gone are the days when you think that the voters will vote for you just because you said that you’re the opposition and had formed a coalition for the sake of one to one (fight),” he said.
“The expectations and standards set by Sabahan voters today have sky-rocketed and this is something that Warisan is working on, day and night.
“Thus, Darell is merely reaffirming and acknowledging the voters’ expectations and standards set by them. As a condition for a regime change, it is incumbent for parties like Warisan and its potential electoral political allies to be trustworthy and credible,” said Masudal.
He further said when it came to an electoral pact with any opposition party, whether locally or nationally based, Warisan had two different strict but convenient approaches.
“The first approach would be with regard to locally-based opposition parties. Warisan is ready to discuss with trustworthy opposition parties who believe in regime change, equal sharing of all the seats to be contested, common policies on proper governance and administration of Sabah and of course, integrity,” said Masudal.
“The second approach would relate to national-based opposition political parties. While Warisan believes that mutual electoral cooperation should exist between Warisan and the national-based parties, such cooperation should not be at the expense of Sabah’s rights and its privileges as an equal partner within the federation of Malaysia, especially when it comes to Malaysia Agreement 1963, our oil and gas rights, our autonomy, our religious freedom, our security and most of all the state’s self governance of Sabah.
“These matters have been stated clearly and in numerous times by Darell, other Warisan leaders and the president himself, Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal,” he added.
Thus, Masudal said it was highly presumptuous and naive for Dagul to say that Warisan was only keen to collaborate with national-based political parties when it is well known that some of them wanted to contest in only a few seats in Sabah.
“Some of the other national-based opposition leaders are highly suspicious on any effort by the Borneo states to pursue the actual implementation of MA63, like what Sarawak did by sending its legal team to London,” he said.
“Perhaps the sentence ‘trustworthy and credible’ may be too strong for some of the veteran Gabungan leaders rendering them to feel uneasy despite Darell having never had mentioned any personalities or parties in the specifics.
“But like the old Malay adage, ‘siapa makan cili, dia terasa pedas’ so some might have unintentionally felt ‘hot’,” he concluded.