Pejuang unperturbed by initial rejection on working with GRS

KOTA KINABALU: Pejuang still harbours hopes of working with local parties including Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) for the next Sabah election despite its informal advances being rejected outright by GRS leaders.

Its state information chief Mohd Hassan Abu Bakar said while Pejuang president Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir had last week expressed the party’s intention to cooperate with GRS in the next election, there has not been any official request or visit by the state chapter to seal this interest.

He added that the possibility of cooperation has already been dismissed by his GRS counterpart Datuk Joniston Bangkuai.

“We consider that was his own personal view as there has not been any formal talks or application made,” he said in a statement here on Thursday (May 9).

“Sometimes we at Pejuang are a bit confused with strongly worded statements from GRS component leaders who are adamant the doors are closed for cooperation with other peninsula-based parties for the state polls and yet they are comfortable with Pakatan Harapan whose components originated from Peninsular Malaysia.

“But what’s important is our mission to bring back the glory days of Sabah,” Mohd Hassan said.

In response to Mukhriz’s remarks, Bangkuai, the GRS information chief, had said there was no reason for the local party coalition to work with other parties from across the pond.

He added GRS will stick with Sabah Pakatan as their partner and reject overtures by peninsula-based Bersatu and Pejuang to work with them in the next state election.

Bangkuai also said that Sabahans are confident with the GRS-Pakatan partnership in governing the state.

Sabah STAR vice president Datuk Kenny Chua had also said “no thanks” to the advances by Pejuang, saying the latter should just stay in the peninsula and leave the governance of Sabah to local parties.

Mohd Hassan however praised the response on the issue by GRS deputy secretary-general and Papar MP Datuk Armizan Mohd Ali who the former described as “professional”.

He said while Armizan noted the question of cooperation with other parties did not arise in GRS, the latter however pointed out his personal view did not matter but the collective voices of components within GRS should instead be heard.

“We respect such responses and we understand at this moment, GRS is more focused on the partnership with Pakatan Plus and we have no problem with that.

“But Pejuang is prioritising added value when it comes to work with others with the same principles, and in this context it is to empower the Sabah Maju Jaya (the state’s development plan),” he said.

At the end of the day, Mohd Hassan said, the coming 17th Sabah state election will push parties to collaborate to ensure they obtain victory through majority vote.

“It’s the same for all parties including in the peninsula. Hence, Pejuang is confident that each vote from our members in Sabah will be very valuable come election time,” he said.