Parti Warisan Sabah secretary-general Loretto Padua Jr said this when responding to the call made by Parti Anak Negeri Sabah (PAN) president Henrynus Amin.
Henrynus had called for opposition KDM political leaders to form a pact to influence major policy decisions in the future by focusing on the 22 KDM-dominated state seats in Sabah.
“Warisan disagrees with the proposal because it is against the spirit of Warisan as a party for all Sabahans and is against the spirit of Bangsa Sabah that we are promoting,” Padua said in a statement.
“Henrynus may have mooted the proposal out of political necessity, favouring PAN.
“We believe that the proposal is no different from the idea of representation by race upheld by Sabah BN.”
Padua is of the opinion that BN discriminates and its concept of representation by race is a failure.
“Throughout BN’s 25 years of administration in Sabah, the KDM community has constantly feared losing power and authority.
“It has always complained about lagging behind in education and development when compared with the rest of Malaysia,” he said.
“Warisan is firm in its stand and will not replicate any of BN’s failed concepts or even practise politics based on race.”
During the Berjaya and PBS eras, it was proven that a Bajau assemblyman could effectively represent a seat with a Chinese majority and, similarly, a Kadazan representative was able to serve well in a Bajau-majority seat, recalled Padua.
“What all the political parties in BN and other opposition party leaders, including Henrynus, must know and understand is that if we want to create a highly-competitive and progressive state of Sabah, we must start thinking about meritocracy,” he said.
“Instead of race, we can produce a crop of highly-talented Sabahans who will then be able to lead the state, without having to prioritise any particular race.
“Only then can there be fair policies that benefit not only the KDM, Bajau or Chinese communities but all races and ethnicities recognised as Sabahans, such as the Sungai, Kadayan, Bisaya, Suluk and so on.”
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