Sabah’s small opposition party has big aims

Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah president Ationg Tituh (seated second from left) with his deputy president Hiew King Cheu (seated left) and other members in Kota Kinabalu today.

KOTA KINABALU: Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah (PGRS) has big aims despite being one of the lesser known political parties in the state. It is already working towards making big gains in the next general election.

Its president Ationg Tituh, who contested under the now-defunct Angkatan Keadilan Rakyat (Akar) in the late 1990s, brushed aside notions that the party would struggle for support amid Sabah’s already-crowded political arena.

“Our strong point is that we have new and clean members and we are confident of gaining support for new governance,” he said during a luncheon with reporters here today.

He said his party would fight for Sabah’s rights.

Tituh closed the party’s doors to any alliance with other parties in the quest to achieve its political goals, claiming the present Sabah government was disappointing and that other political outfits in the state were unreliable.

“The present state government has failed to address issues such as claims on the rise in the number of illegal immigrants in the state as well as concerns about squatter settlements.”

Another major worry was the continuous allegation that citizenships were being handed out to foreigners in Sabah, he said.

The reason for the party being almost dormant previously, Tituh said, was due to funding and personnel issues. The party was registered in 2013 but only started to ramp up its movement in 2016.

He said the party was recruiting more members ahead of the 15th general election.

“We intend to contest all the 73 state seats in Sabah,” he said, adding the party was multi-racial and presently had members in 12 divisions.

Tituh said the party’s various wings would soon step up efforts to attract potential members to join PGRS.

Among those in the party is former Sabah DAP chief Hiew King Cheu, who quit the party to join MCA in 2014. Hiew is also a former Kota Kinabalu MP and assemblyman.

The vice-president is former Tawau councillor Wong Si Vui while the youth chief is Patrick Chong. - FMT