PARTI Warisan Sabah will not cave in to pressure from race-based parties to give up seats, said Mohd Shafie Apdal today.

The party president said the way forward is to be multiracial and field candidates who are best positioned to win.

He said he cannot put a stop to other parties calling Warisan a “reflection of Umno” – a party seen as dominating other race-based Barisan Nasional components – and insists that the best way to win in the 14th general election is to field “winnable” candidates.

“The way forward for us is to be multiracial. What we want in the 21st century is to move forward, and Warisan is not only for one race, but for all.

“Seat-sharing is common in the polls. Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) was once the dominant party. They used to contest in 60 seats, but now, they have only 13 state and five parliamentary seats.

“This shows that they are willing to sacrifice, in order to take over the (state) government. We don’t want to go into the elections just to become YBs, but we want to win the elections,” he said after closing a forum in Kota Kinabalu.

Warisan has made it clear that it wants to contest a bulk of the seats in Sabah and form the state government, and has said it is willing to work with the state Pakatan Harapan.

It is also willing to enter into talks with Parti Cinta Sabah (PCS), a Kadazandusun Murut (KDM) opposition party led by Wilfred Bumburing. 

But, PCS recently said there should be no one dominant party, and Bumburing has said no party should contest more than half of the 60 state and 25 parliamentary seats.

Although he did not name Warisan, the “ground rule” is clearly aimed at the party, which also plans to stand in 22 KDM seats.

PCS is seen to be refusing to entertain talks of an electoral pact, but it has been rumoured to be planning to work with another KDM-based party, Parti Anak Negeri (PAN), led by former PBS secretary Henrynus Amin.

This could see Sabah having three opposition blocs, namely PH-Warisan, United Sabah Alliance and the PCS-PAN cooperation, in addition to many other newly formed opposition parties.

“They can’t contest in all 22 KDM seats in Sabah. Warisan, too, has KDM leaders. I have my deputy president, Darell Leiking (Penampang MP), Warisan treasurer Terrence Siambun (Moyog assemblyman) and vice-president Peter Anthony,” said Shafie.

“If they (PCS) are not willing to sacrifice to take over the government, there is nothing that Warisan can do. We are not here to become YBs.

“But when we are negotiating over seats, make sure we win. We must win. Not lose. Don’t set an ultimatum and make it hard to start a cooperation.”

Warisan is set to hold its first annual general meeting early next month.

This follows the completion of branch meetings on February 28, and Shafie has said the party has more than 30 days following those meetings to hold the AGM.

The party has more than 300 branches in Sabah. – March 11, 2018.