Bersatu’s entry a crushing blow to ‘Sabah for Sabahan’ opposition agenda — Henrynus
KOTA KINABALU: Opposition’s quick embrace of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) was premature and a crushing blow to the “Sabah for Sabahan” opposition agenda, said Parti Kerjasama Anak Negeri president Datuk Henrynus Amin.
He said the opposition’s favour of Bersatu without getting their committment on the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) would be misconstrued as a shift in opposition political strategy, and perhaps a change of heart to finally succumb to national based political parties at the expense of state rights advocacy.
“Opposition political parties should neither welcome nor oppose Bersatu’s entry to Sabah whose objective was solely to bolster its own numbers for the party’s own political survival.
“It is within Bersatu’s right as a duly registered national political party to engage in legitimate political activities in any part of Malaysia,” he said in a statement yesterday.
As a national based Malay Muslim political party, Henrynus said Bersatu no doubt will help to court and consolidate the support of former Sabah Umno leaders and their supporters in favour of the ruling Pakatan Harapan (PH)Warisan coalition government.
He said no opposition political party should doubt or underestimate Bersatu’s support for Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal as Sabah Chief Minister and the ruling PH-Warisan coalition state government in Sabah.
“Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is the master of Machiavellian politics who follows his own logic, and who would not be dictated by popular public sentiments, let alone opposition sentiments.
“With Shafie nodding his head, Tun Dr Mahathir may have killed two birds with one stone.
“Those who think Bersatu’s entry to Sabah will destabilize Warisan by splitting Bumiputera Muslim voters to the advantage of local opposition political parties would be utterly disappointed,” he said.
Unless the unthinkable happens, he said Bersatu and Warisan would be on the same boat and would be fighting the opposition on the same side in the 15th general election within the larger PH national coalition.
“To think otherwise is simply naive or at best politically ignorant.
“Sabahans must now reorientate and brace themselves for the prospect of national based political parties making significant inroads and consolidating themselves in local politics,” said Henrynus.
He said the continuing existence of local opposition political parties is still relevant and necessary due to the peculiarity of local sentiments in federal state politics.
“All local opposition political parties with or without elected leaders should therefore close ranks to find common ground to work together in the face of Bersatu’s entry into Sabah.
“Sabah local opposition political parties with their meagre resources should be prepared to mobilize and face the might of these national based ruling political parties converging on Sabah’s soil with the entire weight of the federal government behind them,” he added.
Henrynus also said opposition fight and political objective should be first and foremost the fulfilment of Federal obligation under MA63 and financial provision for Sabah under Schedule 9 of the Federal Constitution in order to remove the last vestiges of colonial policies in state federal relation.
“There was a change of regime in Kuala Lumpur after GE14 but there is no significant change in terms of federal actions on MA63 election promises beyond the formation of study committee.
“Further the opposition should continously remind the Federal Government of their security obligation to Sabah under MA63 in the light of the huge demographic change due to the unabated arrival of more than a million foreigners from neighbouring countries in the last three decades,” he said.
He said the federal government should be continuously reminded of the high incidence of poverty in Sabah and the poor and backward infrastructure relative to Peninsular Malaysia which negate commercial and industrial scale production of goods, not to mention limitation to tourism businesses as one of the state’s most lucrative export products.
According to Henrynus, the functioning of a true democracy requires an effective opposition to remind the ruling government of their obligation to the people.
The opposition must fight for the sake of the people to stop or check on the excesses of the ruling government and potential abuse of power and wastage of huge state resources due to greed, corruption or even sheer stupidity.
Opposition must continue to voice the conscience of the people without fear to stop history from repeating itself.
Otherwise, the prospect of election promises to be forgotten and relegated to the political backyard by the ruling government is not only possible but probable.