WARISAN is adamant on going solo in the coming general election (GE) and will only decide on cooperation with other coalitions after the polls, its Peninsula chief coordinator Dr Rajiv Bhanot said.

He said for now the party is not going to join any coalition but there is a possibility of cooperation after the polls.

“The party is going into the GE on its own. It (decision) is not due to confidence or arrogance, but instead coming out of a clarity that we need to focus on consolidating and building our house (Warisan) first.

“What happens after the GE, we have to wait and see. If we want to be that force of stability, we need to have our numbers intact (voters). So, our focus now is going on the ground and having our machinery intact,” Rajiv told The Malaysian Insight.

Rajiv said the focus now is getting as many seats as possible and post GE to become a stabilising force.

“If all the other coalitions do not have the numbers, then we (Warisan) can come in as the stabilising force.”

“We don’t want to be part of a coalition now but leaves after the GE. We will decide the direction that we want to take after the elections.”

Warisan is a Sabah-based party that was set up in 2016 by Mohd Shafie Apdal. The former Sabah chief minister then decided to expand the party and bring it to the national level in December 2021.

The party won nine seats in GE14 and was left with six seats in Sabah and one seat in Labuan when Parliament was dissolved on October 10.

Warisan currently has 100,000 registered members in the Peninsula.

Rajiv said that voters in the Peninsula are confused with the three years of intense politicking and that was why Warisan was trying to build a platform that is based on consistency.

“Warisan has been consistent. We did not betray the mandate of the people given to the party in GE14.”

“But in 2020 that caused us our position in the federal government that led to the collapse of the Sabah state government (after the Sheraton move).”

“Our focus now is to consolidate and win as many seats as possible.”

He said post GE15 they have to move away from politics of hate as vindictive politicking will not benefit anyone.

“We are not going to heal as a nation post GE15 if we have one more term of political instability,” Rajiv added. – October 19, 2022.