GEORGE TOWN: A meeting between DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke’s and Parti Warisan president Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal seems unlikely to materialise.

Penang Warisan co-ordinator and DAP’s former Jelutong MP Jeff Ooi effectively said Loke should shelve his hopes of DAP forming a pact with Warisan.

Acknowledging that DAP holds 42 of the 90 seats Pakatan Harapan commands, Ooi said: “DAP is perceived as the ‘big brother’ of Pakatan and it naturally exerts its power over other non-Pakatan Opposition parties”.

“If DAP tries to play ‘big brother’ and lord over other Opposition parties, so be it. As Shafie has said, Warisan will chart its own course,” said Ooi.

On June 4 in Kota Kinabalu, Loke was quoted as saying that he was willing to have a meeting with Shafie “based on mutual respect”.

Loke said that DAP was open to working with other parties “for the betterment of Sabah and Malaysia” but not to “beg to work with other people”.

Loke added DAP was ready to work with other parties in Sabah as long as the party retained the right to contest the three parliamentary seats it holds, namely Tenom, Sandakan and Kota Kinabalu.

But Ooi said all hopes of Warisan and Pakatan being bedfellows ended when the coalition signed the MOU with the government in April last year that included an agreement not to dissolve Parliament before July 31.

“Subsequently, the Opposition was tacitly weakened as a political grouping henceforth and never recovered.

“Many landmark events took place since then,” Ooi said in response to Loke’s offer to parley with Shafie.

Ooi said that Warisan objected to signing any MOU with the government “from day one”.

He added the next general election would be a time “when the people must decide carefully what form of governance they want and vote wisely”.

He said Warisan would play no part in any “big tents that Pakatan promotes in any guise”.

“At the moment, where sincerity and trust are put to severe tests among all parties across both aisles, I don’t foresee any official coalition being formed before GE15,” he said.