KOTA KINABALU, Nov 14 — Parti Warisan president Datuk Seri Shafie has rejected a report claiming his party has reached an agreement with Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) to form a Bornean political bloc.
The Semporna MP said he only indicated that the two should do so due to their commonalities.
“We don’t have a formal agreement yet.
“Listening to senior ministers in Sarawak, I can read their minds and we can work. I’m saying we can, not that we have,” he clarified.
He was referring to an Utusan Malaysia report that quoted him as claiming that the two parties have met and come to an agreement on the matter, but that he could not reveal it just yet.
However, Shafie reiterated that it was not just a pipe dream and could work, but Sarawak was not convinced that it should work with Sabah as its people were not united in their vision.
He said this was his interpretation of PBB vice president Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah saying that non-local parties in Sabah were hampering cooperation between East Malaysian states.
“What is important the people of Sabah to decide whether the same kind of wavelength like Sarawak. How can Sarawak come together with us if the people in Sabah are divided at present. They don’t want to work with KL parties.
“If the Sabah people vote for local party, I think Sarawak will willingly talk to us just as much as we so want to talk to them.
“But if people in Sabah vote for federal parties, so how can they talk?” he said at Bornean Centre here today.
Shafie was believed to be referring to Bersatu in Gabungan Rakyat Sabah and Umno in Barisan Nasional.
“They cannot work with parties like that because they will have to report to their bosses in Kuala Lumpur. They might as well talk to KL directly,” he said.
The Borneo bloc has been one of the thrusts of Warisan’s efforts, which is to seek consensus between the two east Malaysian states in order to amplify their voices and call for effective change.
Sabah has 25 seats while Sarawak has 31 in the 222-seat Parliament.
