PARTI Warisan Sabah has come up with the idea of “Bangsa Sabah” to unite all races in Sabah. 

Its secretary general Loretto Padua Jr today said Warisan wants voters to be given a fresh alternative, other than the “outdated” Barisan Nasional (BN) racial parties that are dividing Sabahans. 

He said Sabah doesn’t belong to only one race – KadazanDusun Murut communities – but all Sabahans. 

“Once we see ourselves collectively and cohesively as Bangsa Sabah, then it will be difficult for the federal government to reject our special rights and privileges because we are now speaking as a state instead of as a particular race,” he said. 

Padua’s statement came amid a racial war of words between leaders from Warisan and Sabah Umno and in response to the recent call made by Sabah-based party, Parti Anak Negeri Sabah (PAN) to win control over the 22 KDM seats in the state.  

PAN president Henrynus Amin recently invited all opposition political leaders to form a new party pact so it could influence policy decisions via its control on the 22 KDM seats in Sabah. 

On February 14, Padua lodged a police report against foreign affairs minister Anifah Aman for his alleged racial slur against Warisan leader Shafie Apdal at a Chinese New Year function on February 9 in Kota Kinabalu. 

Anifah allegedly labelled Shafie a “PTI”,a pseudonym for Illegal migrants.  

Anifah’s camp responded with two police reports on Tuesday, one accusing Padua for twisting Anifah’s statements and a second report against Warisan vice president Peter Anthony for branding Anifah a “Pakistan”, also an illegal migrant slur.  

On Henrynus, Padua said his idea was no different from the representation of race upheld by the Sabah BN, adding Sabah KDM communities have moved on from being race preferential treatment under the BN regime.

He said the division by race is discriminatory and a failure as seen in the 25-year BN rule in Sabah. 

The KDM communities are constantly living in fear of losing power and authority, but complained about Sabahans being far behind in terms of  education and development compared to the rest of Malaysia, Padua said.  

“What all the political parties in BN and other opposition parties leaders including Henrynus must know and understand is that we must start thinking about meritocracy instead of race so that we can produce a crop of highly talented Sabahans who will then be able lead the state without having to prioritise any particular race. 

“Only then can there be fair policies to benefit not only KDM, Bajau or Chinese communities but all race and ethnicities recognised as Sabahans such as the Sungai, Kadayan, Bisaya,  Suluk and so on.” – February 22, 2018.