VK Liew appointed Warisan permanent chairman
KOTA KINABALU: Former president of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Datuk Liew Vui Keong, has been appointed the permanent chairman of Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan).
Warisan president Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal said the party had also appointed former Sabah education director Datuk Seri Panglima Hasbullah Taha as the deputy permanent chairman and former Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) Youth chief Jake Nointin as the information chief.
Asked if Liew is a potential candidate of Warisan, Shafie said the former did not demand to be fielded.
He said this at a press conference after the close of the 'Revolution Towards Education and Career' forum organized by the Education and Career Bureau of Warisan here yesterday.
On another note, Shafie said Warisan would be holding its annual general meeting (AGM) in early April as the Registrar of Societies (RoS) had requested the party to hold its meeting before May this year.
To another question, he said Pakatan Harapan's (PH) manifesto had received mixed views. There were people who were skeptical of the manifesto, including the abolishment of the Goods and Services Tax. He stressed that the important thing was to reduce leakages and avoid overspending.
Shafie said there must be a prudent way to manage the financial system of the country. Nonetheless, he is confident that PH chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is capable of delivering the pledges spelt out in the manifesto with his experience of running the country as prime minister for 22 years.
On PH's promise to form a Special Cabinet committee to review the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) in its manifesto, Shafie said there was no longer a need to form the committee, but rather to just implement the MA63.
“They possibly want to study how things can be implemented or how the implementation can be done,” he said.
On Upko's recent remark that efforts to resolve problems pertaining to Project IC would be affected if the opposition came into power, Shafie said the issue was not caused by the opposition.
Even if Warisan takes over the government, he said, the party did not have the power to approve identification cards as it was under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government.
On Parti Cinta Sabah's (PCS) call to adopt the seat sharing formula practised by PH in West Malaysia whereby no one is to contest more than 50 percent of the state seats in Sabah, Shafie said every party is entitled to their own views.
“But they have to realize that Warisan is a multiracial party. They can take 22 (seats), but what will happen to Darell Leiking, Terrance Siambun and the Kadazan leaders?” he asked.
He said over 1,000 Upko members joined Warisan in Penampang on Saturday, with some hoping they could be considered to be fielded as candidates.
He said PBS used to be a dominant party and had contested 60 state seats at one time.
“Now PBS contests 13 state seats. If you are not willing to sacrifice to take over the government, what can we do?”
Shafie said the party wanted to ensure winnability in the discussions and allocation of seats. Also present were Warisan vice president Junz Wong and Wira chief Dato' Mohd Azis bin Haji Jamman.