Sabah PKR wants final say
Published on: Sunday, August 07, 2016
Kota Kinabalu: Sabah opposition leader Datuk Seri Lajim Ukin (pic) said there is no guarantee Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) will win the 14th General Election (GE14) if PKR Sabah is not given full political autonomy to determine its own political direction.He said it is imperative for the PKR central leadership to understand the needs and requests of PKR Sabah for political autonomy so as to have better chances of winning in the GE14."Right now, when the people are in Keadilan as members or supporters, the most common issue is that we are a Malaya-based party. To us, although it is a peninsula-based party, we also have a strong voice without having any fear and doubts with the central leadership because it has become our responsibility to highlight and voice out the people's views and what they want for Sabah.
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"We want political autonomy for Sabah as mentioned in 5.8 clause of the PKR Constitution to be implemented now before the party governs the country, such as giving the freedom for PKR Sabah to select candidates contesting the state and parliamentary seats in the State without any interference or strong political influence from the central leadership," he said.Lajim, who is also PKR Sabah Chairman, said this after opening a course on pre-election training for State and parliamentary seats for 35 pioneers at a hotel, here, Saturday.By fulfilling this, he said there would be no issue in the State that PKR is a Malaya-based party as there is a Sabah autonomy in the party constitution."If central PKR does not fulfil what we want, then I fear this will create a bigger problem."
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He also hoped the PKR central leadership would give their decision soon as possible since such clause is stated in the party constitution."If Pakatan Harapan and PKR give us the autonomy, there will be no issue in Sabah. But if there are still many interferences from the central leadership and the leaders feel their leadership is being challenged when we are vocal with what we want, then there would be no point…to me.
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"The issue of a local party is to defend Sabah rights and the rights of the people. In fact, we are all fighting and championing the rights and interests of Sabah…whether I'm in PKR or in any party, the rights of Sabah people must be defended."When the time comes and nothing has been done, it will be difficult to fight with the Barisan Nasional that we see as a big elephant as we do not have sufficient machinery to fight the coalition that has various machinery and resources. "We can only rely on the people's support and votes because when they accept our policies, we have bigger chances to win," he said.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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