KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor has made the right move in having a local-based political party Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah (Gagasan Rakyat) in the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) coalition.
Hajiji, who is GRS chairman, said GRS now had six component parties. The other five members are Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS); Parti Solidariti Tanah Airku (STAR); Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) and United Sabah National Organisation (Usno).
He also announced that he will be helming Gagasan Rakyat.
Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) political analyst Dr Romzi Ationg said the announcement was long awaited by many.
"They (the people) are interested in GRS as a complete (coalition made up from) Sabah based parties.
"It is expected that the presence of Gagasan Rakyat shall contribute to the consolidation of not only GRS and stabilise Sabah politics, but also provide another political platform for Sabahans.
"Nevertheless, some may still question such a move and link it with some Anti-Party Hopping Act," said Romzi.
UMS Borneo geopolitics and electoral studies lecturer Dr Syahruddin Awang Ahmad said Gagasan Rakyat, being the new kid on the block, would be compared with existing local parties such as others in the GRS and Parti Warisan.
Despite that, he believes Gagasan Rakyat will become a shiny label of Sabahans' local platform in gaining support from the federal government.
"Gagasan Rakyat should also consistently voice out Sabahans' needs and wants from Putrajaya and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's administration to listen and fulfil them without reservation.
"It should prove its capability for not simply taking any silly instruction (on Sabah's rights) from Putrajaya (Federal Government) as it will literally be construed by Sabahan as Putrajaya's apparatus.
"Voters will happily accept and compromise Gagasan Rakyat as saviour if the newly-formed party succeeds to prove that it has its own strength to pave a path to change Sabah in the next four years or beyond the upcoming state election."
In strengthening the party, Syahruddin said that Hajiji would also have to compete with existing local parties to get more members for the party and come up with its own original ideas to fight for the people of Sabah.