KOTA KINABALU: Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal was non-committal over Parti Warisan forming a Borneo Bloc with Gabungan Parti Sarawak, only saying both parties were on the same wavelength.
When asked if he had met with GPS last week to discuss the formation of the bloc if Warisan won in the upcoming polls, the Warisan president said: "When the time comes I will announce it.
"Sarawak’s voice is the same kind of frequency (as Warisan). (GPS is talking about) protecting Sarawak’s rights, we are also about protecting Sabah’s rights," the former chief minister added.
He was speaking during a campaign trail in Lahad Datu where his younger brother Datuk Yusof is in a three-way battle against Barisan Nasional’s Maizatul Akmam Alawi and Sia Yu Hock of Pakatan Harapan.
Shafie had previously said that Sabah and Sarawak could leverage its "kingmaker" status and push for a different political landscape for the entire country.
He said he agreed with Sarawak Deputy Premier Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hian that with the political situation in chaos, no single party would be able to win GE15 comfortably and that whoever wanted to form the Federal government would need to turn to Sabah and Sarawak.
"I agree with that view because we have 31 parliamentary seats there (in Sarawak), and 25 here (in Sabah).
"If we are smart not to be controlled or dictated by those in Kuala Lumpur, we will call the shots. We have to set a different kind of political landscape in this country," he said, during a Warisan event in Kota Marudu on Oct 13.
In response to the remarks by Shafie, Warisan deputy president Datuk Darell Leiking said Warisan and GPS were able to revive the role of Borneo Bloc as a "trustee" again like in the early 1960s to re-stabilise the political turmoil in Malaysia.
He said one of the reasons that led the British Government to decide to bring Sabah and Sarawak to form the Malaysian federation together with Malaya and Singapore in 1963 was to balance the demographic issue of the population of Malaya and Singapore.
"This shows us all that the Borneo Bloc is very important because the presence of Sabah and Sarawak as 'trustees' that Malaya and Singapore can count on has actually enabled this federation to be established and subsequently led to political stability in the country in the early years of its establishment," he added.
