KOTA KINABALU: A Warisan leader has rubbished the call for the Sabah party to dissolve and join PPBM like the United Sabah National Organisation (Usno) did with Umno, saying such a move makes no sense.
The leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Warisan was currently in power, unlike Usno at the time it merged with Umno.
“There’s no need to dissolve as Warisan is the government,” he said. “Usno was dissolved because it lost and was not the government.”
He added that Warisan was a multiracial party, unlike Usno which had been dominated by Muslim leaders.
“They had a majority of Muslim members and those of a certain demography, and they played that political game,” he said.
“Warisan is not like Usno – the president (Shafie Apdal) is a Bajau, deputy president Darell Leiking is a Kadazan, and the vice-presidents are from the Chinese, Kadazandusun Murut (KDM) or Muslim Bumiputera communities.”
The leader, who is an elected representative, also said Usno had been forced to disband and join Umno as Sabah’s politics was weak at the time.
The call for Warisan to dissolve was made by Sabah-based analyst Musli Oli, who said the party should consider the option in order to remain relevant.
Musli said Usno had done the same, with its elected representatives joining Umno and PBS after its dissolution in 1996.
He also called Warisan a “one-off party”, claiming it had no clear direction other than winning the last election.
However, Leiking’s special officer Christopher Masudal questioned Musli’s remarks, saying the latter had been known to jump from one party to another in the past.
“He was with Usno, and then he joined Umno before switching to PKR and then to Umno again, although unofficially,” he said, adding that Musli was “inconsistent”.
“Who is he to teach us what to do when even PPBM president Muhyiddin Yassin has said they will only open one or two divisions in Sarawak after launching the party there?
“Even he (Muhyiddin) was realistic because they wanted to keep relations with PBB in Sarawak,” he said.
Although Warisan comprised members from different ethnicities, he said, its leaders fought for Sabahans as a whole.
“From the president to the vice-presidents and so forth, they are of different races but they represent Sabahans. They combined in the last election with allies from Pakatan Harapan to put up a fight against Barisan Nasional.
“Shafie leading in the east coast and Leiking in the west – this was a unique combination,” he said.
The anonymous Warisan leader also opined that the PPBM model would not work in Sabah as the party was purely Malay-based whereas Sabah had only Bumiputera and non-Bumiputera communities.
On Musli’s claim that a former Sabah Umno assemblyman who recently joined Warisan had been stopped by a division chief from opening new Warisan branches, he asked why the analyst had not named the division leader.
“It is not the division which approves or rejects branch applications but the central committee, so this is a funny excuse,” he added.
He also accused Musli of playing to KDM sentiments by claiming that Warisan lacked credible leaders from the community.
“This is no different from other leaders who used this rhetoric before, saying it is a pity that the Kadazans have been left behind.
“I admit that there are some in Warisan who have been infected with this complex because of listening to such things over the years, but it is time that we leave such thinking behind.” - FMT
I❤Warisan!
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