Darell
PENAMPANG: It was never a ‘competition’ between Sabah and Sarawak, said Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) deputy president Datuk Darell Leiking.
He said this in light of Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr James Jemut Masing’s call for Sabah to work with Sarawak on ensuring that the two states will have at least one-third of the 222 seats in Parliament.
While Darell supports the notion of the two states working together, he is puzzled by the fact that James, who had been serving under the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) administration for more than 30 years, had failed to implement the one-third seat allocation even after all these years.
“I don’t know whether it (James’ statement) came from him. But when I read the headlines, it’s as if he’s saying that the Warisan government or the state government of Sabah should be asking for the same as Sarawak.
“Yes. We would be asking the same as you. But you, Dr James, had been in the previous BN government for more than 30 years. What did you do on (the call for) the one-third seats.
“Now that you are with the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government. Why don’t you put it as your condition?” asked Darell.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Penampang is of the opinion that the two states want the same thing and thus they should fight for their rights together.
To him, it does not matter ‘who starts first’ or ‘who goes forward’.
“We are on the same island. God gave us this island,” he told reporters when met during his Sentuhan Kasih ceremony, here at Buhavan Square on Saturday.
“I know tomorrow they would say that (Datuk Seri) Shafie Apdal has been in the previous BN government for many years as well but Shafie got out of that previous government and fought it,” added Darell.
He said that he would be ‘pleased’ if James would be able to see that Sabah and Sarawak are not competitors.
The former International and Trade Industry Minister also reminded James that the previous Pakatan Harapan (PH) government only managed to serve for two years and the Warisan-led state government had only been in power for slightly more than two years.
However, he pointed out that his administration still managed to resolve 17 out of the 21 issues in the Malaysian Agreement 1963 (MA63).
Now, Darell opined that it is up to the PN government to resolve the remaining four issues as well as the one-third seat allocation.
He assured that Sabah would support any bills to propose the one-third seat allocation.
On Friday, an online portal quoted James saying that Sabah must join Sarawak in the latter’s pursuit and that Sabah must stop ‘riding on Sarawak’s coattails’.
The event saw Darell, as the Penampang MP, donate a total of RM202,000 to 64 religious houses, comprising churches, mosques and temples in his constituency.