KOTA KINABALU: A former PKR division leader has urged the opposition coalition not to antagonize or belittling the small, locally based Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP).
Nahalan Damsal, the former PKR Batu Sapi division chief, said Pakatan Rakyat should regard SAPP as its ally, and not enemy and work with the local party in the coming Batu Sapi parliamentary by-election on Nov 4.
Pakatan should cooperate with and support local parties like the SAPP to better their chances of forming the next government at national level, he said.
“Pakatan Rakyat leaders must realize that our common enemy here is Umno/Barisan Nasional (BN), not any local parties,” he stressed.
He was speaking in response to a statement by Sabah DAP publicity secretary Edwin Bosi who had on Monday said Sabahans must embrace the national parties to change their future.
Bosi said SAPP should take the cue from another local party, Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), which failed to achieve anything, during its nine-year rule outside of the BN coalition.
However, Nahalan who was also a former Umno leader and assistant state minister under BN, believes the same cannot be said of SAPP, as the latter had pulled out from the ruling coalition to continue with its struggle for the state and to fight for political autonomy.
“Unlike SAPP, PBS has clearly abandoned whatever struggle it used to have in the past when it rejoined BN, for the obvious reason … to survive … and so that its leaders could enjoy all the perks and privileges that come with their positions in the government.
"But, for SAPP, it was exactly the opposite, as they sacrificed all that they were enjoying when they withdrew from BN...more
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