Warisan No. 2 says Sabahans need to come together if they want a Borneo bloc

KOTA KINABALU, Oct 25 — Forming a Borneo bloc with Sarawak is the ultimate goal, but Sabahans must prove that they can stand on without having any strings attached to peninsula-based parties, Warisan deputy president Datuk Darell Leiking said today.

The incumbent Penampang MP said that Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) would understandably be reluctant to work with Sabah as long as they still had ties to semenanjung parties and bicker among themselves.

"If I was GPS, I wouldn’t even openly support any parties in Sabah yet. Because we have yet to show our own drive. Here you have local parties ganging up under big umbrella coalitions from PH, BN to PN, probably even GTA.

"We have yet to clean ourselves from all these Malaya-based parties,” he said, using the old name for peninsular Malaysia.

PH stands for the Pakatan Harapan coalition, BN for Barisan Nasional, PN for Perikatan Nasional, and GTA for Gerakan Tanah Air.

Leiking claimed many Sabahans have called on their leaders to emulate the Sarawak ruling coalition GPS, which consists entirely of local parties.

He said this would not be achieved so long as Sabahan politicians were tied to parties that originated from the peninsula.

"When you talk about the interests of Sabah, you have to talk about it the way the Sarawakians have shown us,” he said, pointing out that no national-based parties have successfully inserted themselves into the state government.

Leiking said that the difference is that Sarawak has never formed its state government with Malaya-based parties, and the result is that the only challenge they face in GE15 is from PH, purportedly because both BN and PN were "afraid” of contesting against the local parties and hope instead that GPS will work with them to form the federal government.

"Sarawakians have built their bloc and I don’t see why we cannot do the same. But this time around, we will try to campaign and partner up with other Sabahan parties, but no coalitions,” he said.

He said that in the end, Warisan was open to working with parties that will guarantee Sabah’s rights and interests under the Malaysian Agreement 1963.

Local politicians have been calling for a Borneo bloc, which is for the two east Malaysian states which make up 56 seats in the 222 seat Parliament. However, Sarawak has yet to show interest in creating this bloc.

Up to the dissolution of Parliament on October 10, GPS held 29 out of the 31 federal seats in Sarawak, with two belonging to Bersatu. However, Bersatu has said that it will give way to GPS in this election.

The political rift in Sabah is more pronounced with the majority seats belonging to the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah-BN unity coalition, while Warisan and PH hold seven each.