KOTA KINABALU: Warisan deputy president Darell Leiking says he prefers to be known as a leader for all Sabahans rather than for just one community.
The Penampang MP, frequently associated as being a leader for the Kadazan Dusun Murut (KDM) community, said he never thought of himself as just representing a particular ethnic group.
“I know I am a Kadazan, but I am a Sabahan first … I always represent one Sabah,” he told reporters today in Penampang.
“I believe we are all Sabahans regardless whether you are Bajau, Chinese, Suluk, Murut or from any other ethnic group in Sabah; we will never forget who we are but you must remember we all share this little island together,” said Leiking, who is contesting the KDM-majority Moyog seat in Sabah’s state election.
He said Warisan had been practising inclusive politics all along, although Sabahans had been divided by politics through race and religion. “That is something I disagree with. And that is why Warisan president Shafie Apdal and myself, we grasp our hand for Sabah,” Leiking said, referring to the Warisan flag.
The former federal minister was responding to claims that Warisan was portraying him as a KDM leader to garner votes from the community.
Asked if Warisan could win more KDM seats in the coming election, Leiking said the party had won the favour of all communities in Sabah but the problem was that certain quarters had a tendency to divide the people.
“The people who want to divide us by race by saying ‘we represent this race or that race’ are the very people who have brought Sabah to where we are – the regression of Sabah.
“Progress is when we don’t look at each other based on our skin or beliefs – progress is when we look at ourselves as ‘we are all Sabahans’,” he said.
Leiking is in a seven-sided contest for Moyog. His main opponents are Perikatan Nasional candidate Joseph Sulaiman of STAR, and John Chryso Masabal of PBS, a PN ally. - FMT
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