KOTA KINABALU: A PKR Youth leader today questioned Warisan’s “Unity” theme, just as the Sabah-based party is about to spread its wings to the peninsula.
State PKR Youth information chief Razeef Rakimin, who has spoken up against Warisan several times before, said the theme, which Warisan just took on, has been PKR’s backbone since its inception in 1999.
He said the party has over the years worked diligently to build its image as a political outfit made of members from various races and religion, adding it now has over one million members in all 222 divisions nationwide.
“The unity instilled by PKR is also translated in Pakatan Harapan (PH).
“As a result, with our logo which carried the symbol of unity in the 14th general election, we (PH) managed to defeat Barisan Nasional (BN),” he said in a statement.
However, he said this was in contrast to the situation in Sabah where the Warisan-PH alliance, led by the former, failed to do so in the general election. Upko, however, left the BN fold to eventually form the state government with Warisan and PH.
He said this failure was repeated in the recent state election where, despite Warisan and its president Shafie Apdal riding heavily on the unity theme, failed to win the mandate of the people after Warisan Plus lost to the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah coalition.
“This was not used by PKR as a bragging point. Instead, the party always maintained the space for other opposition partners to be with PH to subsequently wrest back the mandate taken by the traitors in Perikatan Nasional.”
At the same time, Razeef added, PH was willing to compromise at the state level and allow Warisan the chance to again lead the opposition front.
“PH will always open the channel for negotiations as long as opposition MPs do not have personal agendas or try to divide the coalition.”
Razeef had previously slammed Warisan after its MPs sat out the budget votes as well as when Shafie made a call for an all-out change in the national opposition leadership.
He had also questioned Warisan’s spirit of unity when it decided to contest in seats which PKR had earlier announced it would vie for in the previous state election.
Shafie had said last week that Warisan was set to go national after a proposal was passed during its annual meeting (AGM). During the AGM, party leaders had said the unity theme would catch on in the peninsula.