Warisan should do an ‘Usno’ – dissolve and join PPBM, says analyst

Warisan lacks leaders to drive support from Sabahans apart from its president Shafie Apdal, says an analyst. (Bernama pic)

KOTA KINABALU: A Sabah-based political analyst said Warisan leaders should dissolve the party if they want to stay relevant in the face of the imminent entry of PPBM into the state.

Musli Oli said a similar move was done before by a Sabah party, when the old United Sabah National Organisation (Usno) was dissolved in 1996, with its elected representatives joining Umno and PBS.

Musli Oli.

“I think this is the best way to satisfy everyone. Otherwise, Warisan will continue to eat itself from within like what is happening now,” said Musli, who was deputy information chief for Sabah PKR.

He said Warisan was a “one-off party” with no clear direction other than to win the last elections.

But he said the party was having problems satisfying its supporters whom he described as being made up of “frustrated people”.

“The problem is not the Warisan president Shafie Apdal. The problem is within the party. These people got nothing from Warisan to this day and they are frustrated. As a result, they are impeding the growth of the party,” he said.

He cited as example the case of a former Sabah Umno assemblyman who joined Warisan recently, but was stopped from opening new Warisan branches by a division chief.

He said the assemblyman wanted to open new branches in his constituency by gathering supporters from about 20 Sabah Umno branches.

“Warisan did not allow this to happen. This is the problem. That is why PPBM must come in and get rid of all these politics,” he said.

Musli said Warisan proved unable to manage both its members and allies, including the Kadazan Dusun Murut (KDM).

He also said Warisan lacked credible KDM leaders.

“Can we name any other prominent leaders other than Shafie in Warisan? All the others are followers of Shafie,” he said.

He said ex-Umno leaders who quit the party last year would not join a local party such as Warisan because they consider it not sustainable.

Musli questioned Warisan’s refusal to join Pakatan Harapan (PH) as a full member, saying this has made Sabah powerless in the context of the Malaysian federation.

“A national party like PPBM is different. If Sabah has PPBM, we can decide who can become the prime minister because we have a say.

“It is not that we don’t trust local parties but we have seen the problems with a local party.

“Look at Sarawak. PBB has been there for so long, but what can they do? Nothing. They only talk a lot,” said Musli. -FMT