SABAH has another opposition party. Parti Kerjasama Rakyat Sabah (Pakar), with former Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) secretary-general Henrynus Amin as president, is the latest addition to an already crowded field in the state, which has about 30 opposition parties at last count.

Henrynus said on Saturday he had resigned from PBS, of which he had been a member since 1986. He is also president of Momogun National Congress – an organisation that looks after the interests of the indigenous peoples of Sabah.

The Pakar presidency was handed to him on a plate by Pakar founder-president Zainal Nasiruddin, who is now his deputy.

Henrynus said he was returning to active politics after a three-year absence “to create a new political platform to pursue the original vision that PBS started 30 years ago”.

As he left, he delivered a scathing attack on PBS which he described as a “party trapped by its own success”, and which had failed to address growing discontent among the grassroots and failed to “enter the real fight the party envisioned 30 years ago”.

“PBS started with a noble vision 30 years ago and the people overwhelmingly supported PBS political ideals. But PBS supporters are beginning to doubt the party’s ability to deliver promises made to the people of Sabah.”

He said PBS has been harping on the same old issues for the last three decades but had “produced no tangible results” since it was rendered “small, weak and powerless through divide and rule tactics”.

Henrynus also attacked PBS’ failure to merge with other Kadazandusun Murut (KDM) based parties such as United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko) and Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS) – a splinter of PBS - which he said would have made the party stronger. He blamed the failure on “a powerful group within PBS”.

The last general election, Henrynus said, was proof that PBS was steadily losing strength. The party contested 13 state seats and lost four.

He also pointed out that the party had lost popular votes in almost all the state assembly and parliamentary seats it contested.

“There is very little confidence among PBS supporters the party can recover from its poor election results.“

He said the party “might suffer more defeats” if it were to go against the tide of grassroots sentiments in the upcoming general election, 

Henrynus showed he was fully aware that there were already too many political parties in Sabah, remarking that  “the opposition looks a bit crowded”, but appeared unfazed. 

He said that based on his observation, the majority of Sabah voters, even though they might already belong to a party, were “still undecided or still fence-sitters waiting for the right choice to vote depending on the dynamics of emerging political issues”.

“There are issues not articulated well by political parties from both sides of the political divide. So I am entering the political fray to reorganise issues and a new grassroots political movement to change the dynamics of opposition political strategy,” he said in a statement today.

Henrynus said Pakar was open to working with other opposition parties “to achieve the desired election results” but such parties had to “support our five core issues”. – May 2, 2017.