BY NATASHA JEE and NICK FLETCHER
KUCHING: Political analysts predict local-based political party, Parti Sedar Rakyat (SEDAR) will not make an impact in Sabah and Sarawak.
“I think most people don’t take SEDAR seriously given that all the candidates lost the deposit in the last Sarawak state election,” said Professor James Chin.
“Moving into Sabah would be even more difficult given the number of parties in Sabah. So, I don’t think they have any impact both in Sabah and Sarawak,” he told New Sarawak Tribune.
He was prompted for comments on SEDAR which recently expressed intentions to collaborate with Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) to foster development.
Its president, Datuk Othman Abdillah said this partnership is aimed at replicating Sarawak’s advancements in Sabah, leveraging the progress under the stewardship of Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg.
Chin, who is a professor at the Asia Institute of the University of Tasmania, Australia went on to say that the ‘product’ that SEDAR is selling namely bringing Sarawak’s experience to Sabah is already something the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) coalition is hoping to emulate.
“GRS has many times openly hoped to be the GPS of Sabah. So I’m not sure that they (SEDAR) will have any impact at all since the product they are selling, somebody bigger and with better resource, is already selling the same product,” he said.
Meanwhile, Profesor Dr Lee Kuok Tiung also shared the same views with Chin, saying that SEDAR is deemed unable to significantly influence the politics of Sarawak or Sabah, particularly with its current leadership lineup.
The Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) senior lecturer said the success of the administration under GPS is solely due to GPS’s efforts and has no correlation with SEDAR.
“However, there is no harm in any individual or political party praising the leadership of GPS led by Abang Johari.
“At present, GPS possesses a solid leadership and trained successors to take over the leadership in the future. Hence, there is no need to collaborate with SEDAR.
“But, SEDAR is always welcomed to support and cooperate with any policies or initiatives introduced by the GPS government that are perceived to benefit the people,” he said.
Dr Lee added that the Sabah government, led by the GRS is not only striving for the best interests of the state’s people, but Sabah’s Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor also has a good relationship with Abang Johari.
“The GRS government under Hajiji’s leadership has identified key issues, especially water and electricity issues, and is making efforts to address them while simultaneously looking towards the future by inviting more foreign direct investments (FDI) into Sabah to create more job opportunities,” he said.
At the same time, Lee described GRS and GPS, known as the Borneo Bloc, as having many similarities, especially when it comes to issues related to rights under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).
“If GPS decides not to support PMX (Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim) anymore, it is not impossible for GRS to follow suit because there is a special relationship between GPS and GRS,” said Dr Lee.
