Keep your promise and stay away from Sabah, says Warisan at PPBM

KOTA KINABALU: Warisan insisted the MBPP keep its promise to jump Sabah and let Sabahans handle state affairs.

Speaking to the FMT, Warisan Secretary General Loretto Padua Jr. said that Warisan and the PPBM had good relations and that he understood that the party, headed by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, honor his promise not to enter Sabah.

"In the past, Warisan suffered when our opponents accused us of being the PPBM attorney in Sabah.

"It was a handicap for our own credibility as a local party defending Sabah's rights," he said.

Expressing on the possible orientation of former representatives of Sabah Umno, Padua said that they were widely expected to join the PPBM.

"No one can stop them from joining PPBM. It's their constitutional right. However, this does not mean that PPBM will deploy its wings in Sabah.

"Warisan also has members outside of Sabah, but that does not mean we have to open Warisan branches in Johor, for example."

Nevertheless, the lawyer turned politician thought that PPBM would continue to honor its promise made to Warisan.

The Harapan Rakyat Sabah Party (PHRS), a former member of Gabungan Sabah, led by former deputy chief minister Lajim Ukin, would actively sponsor the entry of the PPBM in Sabah.

PHRS is holding its annual general meeting this weekend and is expected to hold a press conference tomorrow, attended by a senior PPBM official and several officers from the Prime Minister's Office.

The subject of PPBM's entry into Sabah rattled the rumors, some considering it to be the making of another Umno, while others mocked Warisan for his naivety by swallowing all of Mahathir's promise.

Social media users recalled Mahathir's words in 1985, when he promised to swim and sink with Berjaya, but only to see the emergence of the Bersatu Sabah Party (PBS) in the BN group.

"What more can you say about this promise made in private without any written agreement?", They said.

The PPBM is present in all the states of the peninsula and has already opened its Sarawak wing. It is the only national party to have entered Sabah.