PARTI Warisan Sabah’s move to lay claim to rural seats is unfair, and will cause DAP’s five years of hard work to establish a presence in such areas to go down the drain.

State DAP chairman Stephen Wong said the party had undertaken its Impian Sabah project immediately after the conclusion of the 2013 general election, long before Warisan was set up.

“We have completed over 30 projects, from small-scale infrastructural ones, to skills, educational and health workshops. Are we greedy? Why blame us?”

Wong’s comments came following Warisan president Mohd Shafie Apdal’s statement yesterday that seat negotiations between his party and Pakatan Harapan parties had hit a snag, as DAP insisted on standing in rural seats.

The general consensus among the Sabah opposition is that DAP will focus on urban seats.

But, Wong said, DAP hoped to contest only 12 state seats, including Bingkor, Melalap and Sook, and five parliamentary seats, including defending Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan, and the two PKR seats of Keningau and Tenom.

To date, DAP has established community service centres in Keningau, Tenom, Sook and Nabawan.

It is already going up against another opposition party in Bingkor, which will see a fight between DAP and Sabah Solidariti Tanah Airku (Sabah Star) president Dr Jeffrey Kitingan, who is the incumbent.

Sabah Star has not formed a pact with PH.

Warisan has strong support in Keningau and Tenom, where its likely candidates are former Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) Youth chief Jake Nointin (Keningau) and vice-president Peter Anthony (Tenom).

Shafie, however, has not decided on the party’s candidates for the 14th general election.

Nevertheless, Warisan has made it clear that it will still go up against opponents head-on if no consensus is reached among the opposition regarding seats.

Wong said there had yet to be formal discussions with Warisan over the matter, but Shafie had contacted him about meeting up.

“Shafie contacted me about two weeks ago, and told me that he wanted to meet. But, he has yet to come back to me on the matter.

“We are only asking for 12 out of the 73 state seats… is that asking for too much?”

He challenged Warisan to drop its plans to contest in all parliamentary seats.

“Shafie constantly says PH should concentrate on Parliament. Will they give us a clean shot at all 25 Sabah parliamentary seats?

“He also told us to concentrate on urban seats, and yet, every day, Warisan members are disturbing our areas, telling the media that they, too, will contest in these areas.”

He said Warisan was active in areas like Kapayan, which DAP won through Dr Edwin Bosi in GE13.

Bosi left DAP to join Parti Anak Negeri, led by former PBS secretary-general Henrynus Amin, last year. – January 15, 2018.