The former Sabah chief minister believed that, being a local-based party, PBS would be an ideal partner to work with to fight for Sabah’s rights.
Responding to a question on the possibility of an Umno-Warisan pact, Shafie said he was not too concerned about such talks, saying Warisan needed to strengthen itself first.
“Let’s build the house first, strengthen our party first. After we strengthen our party then we can talk and see who we can work with,” he said in an online press conference today.
But he said people have asked him which party he preferred to work with and he told them it was PBS.
“I’d like to work with PBS honestly, I don’t mind. It’s a local party, I know their sentiments, the spirit, desire and their struggles.
“(PBS president) Maximus Ongkili is an old friend of mine and (PBS vice-president and Sabah deputy chief minister) Joachim Gunsalam is a nice guy.
“Let’s work together … why not?”
Sabah Umno chief Bung Moktar Radin and Warisan deputy president Darell Leiking had during an online forum last week not written off the possibility of the two parties working together in future.
Asked whether PBS would be open to the idea of linking up, given its dogged opposition to Warisan’s reign previously, Shafie said: “I don’t know, it’s up to them.”
“I’m just thinking of Sabah’s interest and its people, that’s all. If they are against (working together), it’s okay, no problem. I have not discussed this in my party, I am just floating (the idea).
“Because you have seen that in Sarawak, once you have a very strong footing at home, then it’s very good for us (Sabah),” he said, adding he was not in contact with Ongkili over the matter.
Speaking about the supposed Warisan-Umno pact earlier, Shafie acknowledged that Umno had indicated it was willing to work with Warisan.
“They tell us what they want but they don’t ask us what we want. It’s not supposed to be like that, it’s not one-way traffic … the system is no longer like that, they need to know what the people in Sabah want,” he said.
He said, however, that Warisan will need to work with a peninsula-based party including Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s Pejuang if it wanted to be part of the next federal government.
“Of course we need to align with a national party as well because we are in one nation. We can’t pretend that we are (strong) alone.
“We have to be in an alliance with our brothers in the peninsula. The next election is important for us (as) we have to ensure we’ll be in the government after that,” he said.
But Shafie pointed out that posts and rewards are not what Warisan was after.
“We can work with anyone for the interest of the nation, and of course those aligned with our struggles but we don’t want Sarawak and Sabah taken for granted – we have to build a nation. That’s what we want,” he said.
The Semporna MP pointed out that Warisan had showcased previously its bid to return Sabah’s rights through the Federal Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2019, which sought to restore Sabah and Sarawak’s status, although it failed in Parliament.
He said the federal government needed to realise that matters like the refund of the 40% taxes collected from Sabah and other rights as enshrined under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 are important to Sabahans.
“If that can be realised then it is long-lasting … this is where you can tie up the hearts of all Malaysians.
“It’s not about posts, not to comfort politicians or our party members but to comfort the people,” Shafie said.
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