New party ready to fight for Sabah, will not work with any others to achieve goals

Seated second left Ationg Tituh and members of Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah.

KOTA KINABALU: A little-known opposition party, Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah, is coming to the forefront, and wants to emerge as a strong and reliable party on its own.

Its president, Ationg Tituh, said they did not care there were many other parties in Sabah, because what they know is that they want to be a party that really fights for the rights of Sabahans.

Calling the existing state government a disappointment and other existing parties in Sabah as unreliable, he said Parti Gagasan is made up of clean, enthusiastic and relatively new members.

“Having new and clean members in the party will be our strong point and we are confident that we will be able to gain the supporters needed for new governance,” he said, adding that the party will not work with any parties in Sabah to achieve its political goal.

Asked whether they will accept MPs or assemblymen from other parties, for example, Umno-turned independent politician Datuk Seri Anifah Aman, Ationg said "no way".

As to why they think the current state government was not doing its job for the betterment of the people in Sabah, he said it was because it failed to address pressing issues such as alleged increasing illegal immigrants and squatter problems.

He said there were so many unanswered questions as to why there seem to be more illegal immigrants and the continuously increasing number of fires in squatter areas, as well as claims of the government giving citizenship or documents to illegal immigrants in Sabah.

Ationg said the party, which was registered in 2013, only starting becoming active in 2016 due to manpower and funding issues.

“But now, we have gotten stronger and have the right manpower, as well as funds to get our activities going,” he said.

He said its members now from 12 divisions statewide comprised of people from various racial and religious backgrounds, and are those with good economic and political knowledge.

Ationg said they are also recruiting more potential members to prepare for the next general election where they plan to contest in all the 73 constituencies in Sabah.

He said Parti Gagasan, through its various wings, especially the youth wing, will have a lot of upcoming programmes to lure members, supporters and to increase awareness about their party.