KOTA KINABALU – The departure of members following Warisan Plus’ state election defeat in September will only make Warisan better and stronger, says the party’s deputy president Datuk Darell Leiking.
He said the party is now undergoing the process of “filtering”, weeding out potential trouble makers, saboteurs and others who pose unproductive challenges before the next general election.
The Penampang MP and former federal minister said there is nothing irregular about party members leaving when Warisan is no longer a ruling state party.
“Unfortunately, anybody can go in and out of a party… While Warisan is saddened by the actions of some who left, we would now be able to filter or screen our membership list and work with those who continue to believe in the Warisan cause,” he told The Vibes today.
For instance, while conflicts exist among Sabah Umno party members there are still those who remain loyal to the party, unlike some who left Umno in Sabah like the mass exodus of the party’s elected reps in December 2018.
Many of the Sabah Umno members later formed the Sabah Bersatu in April 2019.
Leiking said the situation is the same with Warisan – the ones who stayed on are those who may have issues with the party but they remain due to their common interest with the party.
He said that they see Warisan as a multiracial party working together to build a better nation.
“Those who left may opine that Warisan had failed them or they just don't like some of the leaders in the party or for personal reasons,” said Leiking.
He said those who remain true to Warisan do so as they see it still being a strong party.
Thousands of members had gone out of the Sabah-based party ahead of the Sabah state election last year. Most were members in the Sepanggar, Sandakan, Libaran and Tawau constituencies.
Overall, close to 4,000 Warisan members left the party ahead of the 16th Sabah election, which was in September last year, but party secretary-general Loretto Padua Jr had insisted that those who abandoned were not recorded in the party’s registry.
Warisan had accused a former party member with links to Umno to have caused the exodus.
Some 100 more Warisan members joined Sabah Star in Putatan recently.
While Leiking said it is not right to criticise these Warisan deserters, leaders in Warisan should express their gratitude to them for helping the party to become stronger.
He expressed his belief that some of the former members now have joined other ruling parties in Sabah, adding however that these parties are not dominant in their respective alliances.
Leiking, who is also Moyog state assemblyman, did not name the parties but he may be referring to parties like Sabah Star and PBRS in the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) alliance.
Sabah Star and PBRS currently only hold the Keningau and Pensiangan parliamentary seats respectively.
During the Barisan Nasional (BN) era, Sabah parties like PBRS were believed to have no say in the BN coalition and had decisions made for them by the dominant Umno due to their small representation in the coalition in Parliament. – The Vibes, January 13, 2020.
