‘Warisan wrong to think DAP can’t win rural seats in Sabah’

DAP says it has worked tirelessly in certain rural seats since last election in 2013.

KOTA KINABALU: Parti Warisan Sabah president Shafie Apdal is wrong in accusing DAP of making it difficult for opposition parties to discuss election strategy, a Sabah DAP leader said today.

Pensiangan DAP coordinator Adrian Lasimbang said he was surprised that the former rural and regional development minister had called on the national-based party to leave the rural seats, particularly Kadazandusun Murut (KDM) areas, to Warisan.

In a speech in Tuaran yesterday, Shafie had insinuated that the move by DAP to also want to contest in rural areas was the reason why the opposition parties are facing difficulty in negotiating the formation of an alliance or election pact in Sabah.

“DAP did not ask for many rural seats. In fact, DAP only asked for Bingkor and Sook while Melalap was a seat that DAP had contested in GE13. So, how can this be asking too much?”

Adrian said while DAP had lost the rural seats it contested in previous elections, it had never given up and instead had worked tirelessly in certain rural seats immediately after the last election in 2013, way before Parti Warisan Sabah was formed.

He said the party believes in continuous engagement to win over the hearts of the people, hence the establishment of the party’s community service centres in Keningau, Tenom, Sook and Nabawan.

These centres act as a one-stop centre to receive and act on public complaints, a move which now puts BN in the hot seat, particularly in Pensiangan, he claimed.

Other than serving the public through the centres, Lasimbang said Sabah DAP had also carried out numerous community projects under Impian Sabah, and held education and medical camps.

It had made tremendous inroads in rallying grassroots support from the native community, he added.

“DAP has left its mark among rural people with its four years’ of hard work, addressing issues that are important for the people.

“Shafie’s statement shows how ill-informed he is about DAP and how we work. I don’t blame him because he has yet to meet our grassroots and local leaders despite being invited to work with DAP.

“I am surprised how he came up with the conclusion that DAP is only good in urban areas even without meeting us.

“I guess he is still using the perception painted by Umno that DAP is a Chinese party,” he said.

DAP recently expressed interest in contesting in 12 constituencies, including rural areas.

In the last general election, DAP won most urban and Chinese-majority seats, namely Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan, Sri Tanjong and Kapayan.

DAP is deemed to be less friendly to Warisan than its Pakatan Harapan partner, PKR.

When contacted, Sabah PH chairperson Christina Liew said DAP was entitled to have its say on how many seats they want to contest in the election.

“As for PKR, we are not yet in a position to do so but we will do so in due course.

“Now, that is not the case yet because we are still negotiating with local parties, including Warisan.”

She said Sabah PH and Warisan have the same objective — to overthrow the current government.

“It is important to sit down and work out a formula to achieve it, including seat distribution,” she said. -FMT