No pact with PH, says Parti Warisan Sabah vice-president

Junz Wong says, however, that the party will cooperate with Pakatan Harapan to win parliament for the opposition.

KOTA KINABALU: Parti Warisan Sabah, in welcoming Pakatan Harapan’s ‘New Deal for Sabah’ manifesto revealed recently, insists it is not looking to ally itself with the peninsula-based coalition.

Vice President Junz Wong told FMT he was not surprised by the content of the manifesto, adding that it had vindicated Warisan leaders who had worked hard to awaken Sabahans to unite again “like they used to be”.

“The manifesto shows that now parties from the peninsula respect the wishes of the people in Sabah, because we made them do it,” he said.

He added: “Sabahans do not need the parties from Malaya to tell us what’s best for Sabah, what to do and who to choose. We know exactly what’s best for Sabah.”

Wong said Warisan had decided not to ally itself with PH because it did not want to be manipulated or controlled or affiliated to parties in West Malaysia.

“We are not even going to let go of the parliamentary seats. I hope PH will win parliament so Warisan can help form the federal government with them but on our terms. Sabah needs to have representatives in the parliament to keep the federal government in line,” he said.

Wong said when Warisan was formed, its leaders were attacked left and right both by the public and politicians who accused them of further dividing the people.

However, he pointed out, over time people realised that Warisan was the only party capable of uniting the people because it was truly multi-racial, a trait, he said, that had gone missing since the time of PBS.

Furthermore, he said, Warisan’s core struggle was to take back Sabah’s rights, which had been taken away little by little by the “ever growing” federal government.

“Sabahans have been asleep for so long, they have forgotten that it is their struggle and duty to take back Sabah. Our people were asleep until Warisan was formed,” he claimed.

Instead of dividing the people, he said, Warisan had proven to be the uniting factor so much so that even BN component parties were realising they needed to unite the people and were now singing a different tune regarding Sabah’s rights.

“As this momentum continues, it is therefore not surprising that West Malaysian politicians suddenly realise they care about Sabahans so much that they are offering us a ‘new deal’ which I think is too good to be true.

“I welcome the manifesto but let’s be real about it. They are only offering these goodies, but do not take Sabahans for fools who would believe whatever promises made by West Malaysian politicians,” he said.

He pointed out that in the last election there was almost no talk about decentralisation but now, all West Malaysian politicians could talk about was autonomy, hence the promise of 50% revenue and increase in oil and gas royalty.

Not only that, he said, when Warisan proposed to have a state education ministry, both PH and BN dismissed the idea as unattainable. But the party was justified again when the Sarawak government proved it could be done.

Now, he said, PH had offered to decentralise both education and healthcare services to the Sabah government. This was good but it only proved that at least PH now understood the feelings and sentiments in Sabah.

Wong credited this change of strategy by both PH and BN to Warisan’s clear vision and hard work as well as the Sarawakians who had dumped PH in favour of Sarawak-centric local parties during their state election last year.

However, he asked, why had PH promised to limit the post of Sabah chief minister to only two terms when there was no such limit for the posts of Penang chief minister and Selangor menteri besar.

“I don’t remember PH imposing a term limitation on Malaya states. That idea was started by Warisan but has been borrowed by PH. If they are so keen on limiting Sabah, why is there no such limitation imposed on Penang or Selangor?

“I don’t hear them say anything about Lim Guan Eng who is now into his second term as Penang chief minister. So, why is that rule only good for Sabah?” he asked. -FMT