Jomo said the opposition parties were not sensitive to the hopes and aspirations of East Malaysians, and this was partly why they still could not work together with political parties in Sabah and Sarawak.
“The opposition is likely going to lose, not because it is weak but because the opposition in the peninsula does not want to unite with the opposition in Sabah and Sarawak,” Jomo said at the launch of a book on Malaysian history by veteran politician Syed Husin Ali today.
“Solving the woes that Sabah and Sarawak are facing is of utmost importance,” he said.
Jomo said the disunity among the opposition will work in favour of Barisan Nasional (BN), adding that this could set back the country’s politics to how it was three decades ago.
“We will likely see BN holding two-thirds majority in Parliament, with the biggest opposition party being the DAP, just as it was back in the 1980s,” he said.
Fifty-six of the 222 parliamentary seats in the Dewan Rakyat are in Sabah and Sarawak, the bulk of which were won by BN in the last general election.
Last week, Warisan vice-president Junz Wong told FMT that although the party welcomed the Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) manifesto for Sabah, his party was not looking to be allied with the peninsula-based opposition coalition.
Wong said this was because Warisan did not want to be manipulated or controlled by parties from West Malaysia.