Latest thoughts as at 15 October 2022 - Tan Sri Pairin Kitingan

15 October 2022

Today is the 15 October, 2022. The newspapers have not yet crystallised with any sort of clear decisions on any particular subject pertaining to the general elections nor about the future of Sabah or Malaysia.

GRS had a meeting with BN but has yet to come to any conclusion regarding how many parliamentary seats each group will stand in. There are 25 seats to be filled with candidates. The only party which has declared to stand in 25 seats is Warisan and it also has announced its first candidate for Sipitang.

It is clear that there will be continued tussle for seats for a few weeks! But it seems that the PBS President has already announced that it will go along using the GRS symbol for this parliamentary elections. It is to be noted that this parliamentary election is very important and significant when it comes to the coming parliamentary session after the elections, particularly, in the context of Sabah's rights within the MA63 agreement. What this means is that the people's focus is to emphasize and protect Sabah's rights and interest through the voices of the 25 seats, and 26 if you include Labuan, elected parliamentarians from Sabah in Parliament.

In theory, our Sabah MPs must be of one voice and direction as far as protecting Sabah's rights and interests, and its sovereignty, so that we cannot simply be bullied by the powers that be in Parliament who had given us no opportunity to release ourselves in Sabah from a neo colonial situation since the British gave us away to Malaya!

Hence, in order to approach our role in Parliament with one voice we need to stand and deliver together as brothers and sisters! We should emulate Sarawak! And our leaders have been saying that they will work closely with Sarawak. That is indeed beautiful and well-said! Let us then consider this unified approach seriously so that our thoughts can be turned into active and positive action producing the same shaped product!

Towards this end, let us also be guided by voices from the grassroots.

From what we have gathered so far the grassroots are telling us that in this parliamentary elections we need to elect and prefer local parties which are more directed to protect Sabah's rights and interests rather that parties from outside which have other agenda and not focussed on protecting Sabah's rights and future but more towards power and control over Sabah. They say: enough is enough! So who will make the decisions in this parliamentary election? Of course, it is the rakyat! They are the voters and it would be their responsibility to decide properly.

But how will the voters be guided? There are so many political parties in Sabah! And it looks like many candidates will stand to represent their respective political party.

To be fair to the voters, especially of the younger generation, they must have it in their minds to protect Sabah and its future, as well as the safety and development of the future generation! They must prefer and make up their minds to support and vote for candidates representing local political parties which clearly are geared, ready and prepared to fight for Sabah and its future and do not have any hidden agenda disadvantageous to Sabah and its future generation!

Another very important guidance is to avoid the influence of monetary or material political baits! These incidents have happened before in elections. Learn from the past experience. Be guided by your wisdom and common sense. Think of your future and the future of Sabah.

In a democratic system, any political party or for that matter, any individual citizen can participate in any election. Any candidate can stand in any constituency and promise all sorts of promises. But all candidates depend on the voters to win. If the voters voted a candidate with a majority number of votes, that candidate wins. It is up to the voters to bring about the desired results! You, as a registered voter, have that very important responsibility to vote for the right person or political party.

Sabah's future is in your hands! Let us, voters, vote wisely! Make the decision for Sabah!

And as this is an election for Sabah at the parliamentary level, let us hope and pray that all the MPs elected from Sabah will defend and protect Sabah's rights, interest, sovereignty and its future when they appear and represent Sabah in Parliament!

Let us hope that at the parliamentary level our MPs can close rank and form the Parliamentary Caucus so that proper and coordinated approach can be done when voicing in unity in Parliament for and on behalf of Sabah and its future generation!

Tan Sri DSP HS Joseph Pairin Kitingan