By Azhar Datuk Hj Matusin
Treasurer-General
Parti Warisan
KOTA KINABALU — Parti Warisan Treasurer-General Azhar Datuk Hj Matusin today rebuked GRS deputy secretary-general Datuk Armizan Mohd Ali for his deliberate distortion of history and hypocrisy in defending a coalition built on betrayal and backdoor deals.
Let’s be clear: Warisan’s rise to government in 2018 was not the result of betrayal — it was the restoration of the people’s will.
When the votes were counted in GE14, the people of Sabah had voted overwhelmingly against Barisan Nasional (BN), rejecting decades of exploitation and corruption. The short-lived Musa Aman government that Armizan refers to had no majority. When UPKO and several independents declared support for Warisan and Pakatan Harapan, it was not a “defection,” but an alignment with the people’s choice — a moral correction, not treachery.
By contrast, GRS came to power in 2020 through the very betrayal they now pretend to oppose. It was Hajiji Noor and his allies who led mass defections from the elected Warisan-led government — toppling a people’s mandate midway through the term. That is the true tragedy of Sabah’s politics, the one Armizan conveniently omits.
Furthermore, Armizan’s attempt to claim moral credit for anti-hopping laws is absurd. The federal and state anti-party hopping provisions were not GRS initiatives, but bipartisan reforms born out of the very political instability caused by GRS and its defectors. GRS only supported the amendment because public outrage made it politically impossible to do otherwise.
In fact, when Warisan formally wrote to the State Legislative Assembly Speaker to vacate the seats of its defectors, the request was ignored by the GRS-appointed Speaker. This clearly demonstrates that GRS’s supposed commitment to anti-hopping principles is hollow — they defend the law only when it benefits them politically, but refuse to enforce it when it protects the people’s mandate.
As for Warisan’s alleged inconsistency, the record shows that Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal’s call for anti-hopping laws came after witnessing firsthand how Sabah’s democratic choice was stolen in 2020. That is not hypocrisy — that is evolution based on painful experience.
Warisan today is a principled, multi-ethnic Sabah party — contesting all 73 seats because it believes in returning Sabah’s future to the people, not to political brokers.
Sabahans remember who betrayed them. And no amount of revisionist storytelling from Armizan or GRS can erase the truth:
In 2018, Warisan restored democracy.
In 2020, GRS robbed it.
On Armizan’s advice to Sabahans to “vote wisely,” Warisan completely agrees. But wisdom means rejecting corruption and deceit. Warisan therefore urges Sabahans to vote out corrupt leaders and parties — especially those local parties that remain subservient to the dictates of Malaya instead of standing proudly for Sabah’s rights and dignity.
