KUALA LUMPUR: Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) cannot win the next Sabah state election on its own and will need Pakatan Harapan and Barisan Nasional on its side, says Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan.
The Sabah Umno deputy chief and former federal minister emphasised that this collaboration was essential for GRS to offer a “comprehensive solution” to the people of Sabah.
“It is difficult to go solo, and the political history in Sabah has shown that even a local-based party using the ‘Sabah for Sabahan’ slogan cannot win. They usually secure a small number of seats,” he said at the Political Economy Forum 2024: Reality of Political and Economic Challenges in the 21st Century held at the International Youth Centre here yesterday.
The former Kota Belud MP said unlike Sarawak, the best recipe for stability in Sabah was a combination of local and national-based political parties.
He said due to its colourful history, with the Sabah state administration having changed hands several times, having national-based parties in the mix would further empower Sabahans.
“We can never compare GRS and GPS (Gabungan Parti Sarawak) fairly.
“Consider this – when local-based parties are in dispute, it will spell disaster. So the national parties will be the referee to keep things in check. Even if the national parties face issues, they have their ‘daddies’ at the federal level to keep things in check.
“Besides, the combination of local and national-based parties will also ensure that Sabahans have a say on who becomes the next prime minister,” he added.
The Sabah state election is due by September next year. GRS, which comprises eight parties including PGRS and PBS, holds 42 of the 73 seats in the state assembly.
On allocations for Opposition MPs, the former Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister said there was a difference between such allocations and development funds.
He said it was wrong to assume that Opposition parliamentary constituencies that did not get an MP’s allocation will be left behind in economic and infrastructure development, pointing out that such allocations were negligible and mostly used up for service centre and small projects.
“The other is development expenditure, and these are two separate allocations.
“As the minister in charge of the Economic Planning Unit years ago, I can tell you that we never denied the right to development for any constituency under the Opposition.
“So please learn to differentiate between the two because they are not the same,” he said, referring to the Opposition rejecting the draft MOU on cooperation with the federal government.
PAS secretary-general Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan had claimed that the draft set a strict condition for the Opposition to support the federal government on certain occasions.
On this, Abdul Rahman said it was normal for the federal government to impose such a condition in a Confidence and Supply Agreement (CSA) with the Opposition but pointed out that would usually apply to a government with a weak majority.
“But it is different now with the current government under Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim because his government has a two-thirds majority.
“This kind of CSA is not very important for him (Anwar and his government) since he already has a strong majority,” he added.
