Warisan: Unite Sabahans first, party presidents later

The people need to be united in the common goal of uprooting BN before any seat negotiations take place, says Warisan Youth chief Azis Jamman.

KOTA KINABALU: Parti Warisan Sabah has reiterated its position that now is the time to connect with the people instead of negotiating which opposition party gets to contest in which constituency come election time.

DAP had approached Warisan, expressing its willingness to enter into a deal on seats with secretary Chan Foong Hin reportedly telling Warisan Youth chief Mohd Azis Jamman that DAP would not eye Penampang where the Parliament seat is currently held by Warisan deputy president Darell Leiking.

Chan further said all seats won by the opposition should be defended by the parties which won those seats.

This is the number one rule in seat negotiation and must be honoured, he said.

However, Darell won the Penampang seat on a PKR ticket in the last election before leaving the party to join Warisan, led by former Umno stalwart Shafie Apdal.

PKR and DAP are members of opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan (PH), and while Chan said DAP will not field a candidate in Penampang, Sabah PKR chairman Christina Liew in May sent a different signal on the matter.

She was reported as saying that her party would contest in several constituencies including Penampang.

Warisan however remains unconcerned about PH’s apparent inconsistencies and instead relies on its principle of first uniting the people in a common goal before uniting the leaders of the opposition parties.

“We have been consistent all this while in the matter of seat negotiations between opposition parties, and we’ll say it again that now is not the right time to do this,” Azis told FMT.

“What we think all opposition parties should do now is really ‘turun padang’ (go down to the grassroots) and create awareness among Sabahans about the dire need to change the government in the upcoming election.

“The people first need to know why we need to uproot Barisan Nasional (BN) and Umno. This is the most important thing to do now. Who contests where comes later.

“We are willing to sit down and negotiate, but later. When we’ll talk depends on the Warisan president. He’ll decide when our party will deal.

“The people first need to be united towards a common goal during the election. Uniting the presidents of the opposition parties takes place only after this.”

Azis insisted that the opposition needs to learn the important lesson of loyalty and stability in order to keep the coalition together before and after the people cast their votes.

“Anything can happen in politics. It’s not impossible that one or two weeks before the election, a party or even a whole coalition ‘jumps ship’ to the other side, like Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) did by jumping from BN.

“We are willing to sit down with the other opposition parties, but only the genuine ones. Those who only talk like the opposition, we’ll not negotiate with them. We can’t trust them,” he said. -FMT