Pakatan wants pact but talk of seat formula premature – Christina

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman Christina Liew said the statement made by PH deputy chairman Stephen Wong that PH si willing to exchange 60 percent of parliamentary and state assembly seats with Parti Warisan Sabah as somewhat premature.

Liew said Stephen, who also is the DAP state chief, had jumped the gun in making the announcement on Thursday, contending that the four-party alliance had not decided on an exchange of 60 percent seats in the state legislative assembly for 60 percent seats in Parliament for the coming 14th general election (GE14).

“It is not our stand. We did not mention this formula. We definitely want a pact with them, but we did not decide on this formula,” she affirmed yesterday.

Liew also said that the announcement should not have been made publicly, but should have been discussed behind closed doors.

Despite the snafu, the Api Api assemblywoman said the relationship between her party, PKR, and DAP in Sabah is still ‘OK' but declined to comment when asked if she had spoken to Wong on the matter.

On Thursday, Wong was reported to have said that PH had, in a consensus, agreed to not to run in 60 percent of the 60 Sabah state seats in the next polls, if Warisan would agree not to field candidates in 60 percent of the parliamentary seats here.

In an immediate response, Warisan deputy president Darell Leiking, said it was not appropriate to offer the bottom line of an ‘ultimatum' publicly before coming to any agreement to collaborate.

Liew said she did not consider Wong's premature offer as an ‘ultimatum' although she acknowledged Leiking's rationale that there were more to discuss than just a ratio.

“After our meeting with Pakatan Harapan deputy president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, I had, in fact, issued a letter to Warisan expressing our intent to work together and hopefully soon before the end of the month. But there was no mention of the seat sharing formula and this was not something we had decided on,” she said.

When contacted for comment, Sabah DAP secretary Chan Foong Hin, said that he disagreed with Liew.

“With due respect, DAP Sabah does not agree with PKR Sabah chairperson Christina Liew's statement during the press conference this morning. However, we will not continue to pursue the matter by commenting in the media.

“DAP Sabah is of the opinion that seats negotiation should be conducted through proper channels and any discussions should be conducted behind the scene and privately between our parties,” he said in a statement, without elaborating.