GRS-Sabah Pakatan bipartisan cooperation yet to take shape, says Sabah DAP

KOTA KINABALU: A deal for bipartisan political cooperation between the ruling Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) and opposition Sabah Pakatan Harapan has yet to be finalised, says Sabah DAP secretary Chan Foong Hin.

"It is too premature to say anything. No decisions have been made," he said when contacted over reports that the four party Sabah Pakatan was in the midst of inking a deal with the 10 party ruling GRS.

"It is not true. To be more precise, it is premature to conclude (that we are signing)," he said on Saturday (Oct 23).

He said this when asked about a local media report claiming that a memorandum of understanding between GRS and state Pakatan was to be concluded soon.

Chan said that the state Pakatan members, composed of PKR, DAP, Amanah and Upko, had discussed the issue among themselves in line with the MOU signed at the Federal level.

However, he said that there had been special committees set up between Pakatan and the GRS to draw up the bi-partisan memorandum of understanding.

Chan said that the state Pakatan leaders would be holding a meeting to further discuss the issues.

Meanwhile, Sabah Pakatan chairman Datuk Christina Liew, who was Sabah PKR chief, did not want to comment on the issue.

It was learned that Liew had communicated with Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor about two-weeks ago and DAP secretary general Lim Guan Eng had also met with Hajiji over the possibility of Sabah going into bipartisan political cooperation.

Sources said that there were no commitments made during discussions and mainly for working on an agenda of cooperation between government and opposition for political stability.

Lim had also met with state opposition leader Parti Warisan Sabah president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal, whose party had stayed out of the Federal opposition MOU with the government.

It was learned that Shafie maintained his party's stand that there was no need for a bipartisan MOU at the state level as it would make no difference to the current status quo.

His contention among others was that the GRS government had a comfortable 49 seat majority in the 78-member state assembly while the combined opposition held 29 seats (Warisan - 20 seats, Pakatan - DAP 6 seats and PKR 2 seats, Upko - 1 seat).

Warisan was not a member of Pakatan but retained "relations" on an opposition platform with some of the parties in the group.