KOTA KINABALU: Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) needs to amend its constitution first if it seeks to become a national party and garner membership among West Malaysians.
Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) senior lecturer Prof Dr Lee Kuok Tiung said it was important for the Sabah based party to outline a clear objective on what it can do at the national level.
"As we all know, Peninsular Malaysia is crowded with parties already. At the moment, I only see their objective or priority in tackling Sabahans in Peninsular because of the outstation voters are always crucial in determining who'll win an election.
"If they are looking at becoming a national level party, they first need to amend their party's constitution to make it clear (for West Malaysians)," he told New Straits Times today.
Lee said this when asked whether he foresees Warisan evolving into a national based party compared to limiting its current struggle for Sabahans. This follows Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal's announcement two days ago that the four-year-old party is seeking to spread its wings to Peninsular Malaysia.
The political communication expert opined that Warisan was seeking to expand its presence to face the 15th general election.
"It's part of the strategy or preparedness for coming election because there are quite a number of Sabahans based in the peninsula due to reasons such as work, migration, or studies.
"At the same time, they (Warisan) might see it being as an alternative to Parti Pejuang Tanah Air (Pejuang) to link up with them as a part of a backup contingency plan," he said.
On whether Malaysians in the peninsula would accept Warisan, Lee said West Malaysians would prefer to see the Sabah-based party staying put in the east Malaysian state and focus on state-level politics especially after its defeat in the 16th state election.
He concluded it would be difficult and would prove challenging for Shafie to establish himself as a national leader in Peninsular Malaysia.
Ethno-politics expert Dr Romzi Ationg said Warisan needs to consolidate is political grip in Sabah before making a move to expand its influence to the peninsula.
"Warisan argues that it is a move driven by an intention to unify Malaysians on the whole as well as strengthening its political support, but I don't think that is a good way of gaining political support.
"Many opined that such a move may link it with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's failure in establishing Pejuang. If that is true, then Warisan needs to think twice before expanding to other parts of Malaysia," he said.
Following this, the Universiti Malaysia Sabah academician believes the people of Sabah and West Malaysians may think twice before joining or supporting Warisan in the peninsula.
He added other political parties might feel uneasy with such a move, as it would lead to political disagreement.
Like Lee, Romzi also said Warisan slogan has always been 'Sabah for Sabahans' and thus, the expansion move may gain critics from Sabahans as it provides an opportunity for its rivals to tarnish Warisan's image as a local party with strong Sabah agenda.
"Certainly, there will be supporters in peninsular, but mainly it will be from Sabahans. The West Malaysian people may not support Warisan during its initial establishment period.
"What this hints at is that Warisan is interested in contesting outside Sabah," he said.
Shafie, who is Warisan president, had said they would focus on expanding party division to Selangor and Johor initially as these are among the states that has a major concentration of Sabahans working or who have settled there.
The former chief minister said the expansion move would allow for Borneo states to work on becoming part of the nation's decision-making power and that Peninsular leaders had talked to him about expanding Warisan's presence.
For that, Shafie said Warisan would be open to take in Peninsular Malaysians who are interested in the party's ideology as members.