KUALA LUMPUR, June 6 — Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) is not officially part of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) pact and need not refer to Putrajaya when deciding matters related to the state, said permanent party chairman VK Liew.
Liew explained that Warisan was a “strategic partner” to PH rather than a component party that must abide to the coalition’s policies and directions.
“Warisan is now the new government in Sabah. It is not a component party of Pakatan Harapan, as many have wrongly understood.
“The fact that Warisan is not a component party of Pakatan means that we in Sabah have autonomy in deciding our own affairs,” he was quoted as saying by The Star newspaper.
“Our chief minister (Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal) doesn’t need to refer to Kuala Lumpur (the federal government) any more for any decisions,” the Batu Sapi MP added.
To ensure victory in Sabah, Warisan worked with PH by not contesting against each other in 60 state and 25 parliamentary seats in the 14th general election.
However, Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) fielded candidates against Warisan and lost in Batu Sapi and the Merotai state seat there.
“I’d take it as a one-off case and would not want to make it an issue,” Liew said, referring to the incidents of Amanah going against Warisan members during GE14.
“In any event, the Amanah candidate lost his deposit as he only secured 980 votes (in Batu Sapi), he added.
Arbaani Akum had also faced a similar predicament in Merotai after only clinching 193 votes in a multi-cornered fight.
