KOTA KINABALU: Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) is still a local brand although there is a national party within the coalition, says Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor.
The GRS chairman said that as the leader of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia in Sabah, he wished to reiterate that the GRS sticks to and fights for local agendas.
“GRS was formed by a group of political parties with a common goal of bringing Sabah more prosperity and development,” he said during his speech at the Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) congress here Friday (July 1).
Therefore, it was important that component parties within GRS and allies like PBS stuck together for the betterment of the state, Hajiji said.
“GRS must be united. We have enough disunity in our political arena in Sabah.
GRS must be open to welcoming anyone who shares the same aspirations with our vision and mission,” he said.
“We are stronger when united and we will be respected more if we are strong politically. That way, we have a bigger voice when bringing up issues that concern Sabah,” he added.
Hajiji said the commitment to keep the coalition "local" was by ensuring that its leadership, agendas and decisions were consensus-based.
“We in Sabah will decide for ourselves the way forward and our line-ups. All GRS members need to hold on to the principles and cores of the GRS constitution while respecting both state and federal constitutions,” he said.
He said Sabah’s politics have come a long way, with many leaders and parties having interconnections throughout their journey.
Hajiji said what was important was to move forward and stay united, to rise up from failures and to continue finding fresh formulas to stay relevant and emerge stronger.
Earlier, he reiterated the four main cores of the GRS, which are Sabah First, Sabah Forward, Sabah Prosper and Sabah United.
“Sabah First means everything that is done and fought for should be for the interest of Sabah first, that is why we in GRS agreed to join in the London visit recently to search for more data and get a better understanding of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63),” he said.
Hajiji said it was vital to gather and provide enough data to stake any claims with regards to MA63.
He said the MA63 was not just something the people in Sabah and Sarawak identify with, but actually a “birth certificate” for the federation of Malaysia.
