COMMENT | The Pakatan Harapan leadership must bear one important thing in mind when handling Sabah – the leaders of local parties in the state are not nobodies.

One is a former chief minister, another a former deputy chief minister, one is a former Umno vice-president while two are former deputy federal ministers.

Sabah Progressive Party’s Yong Teck Lee (photo) served as chief minister in the mid-1990s, Parti Cinta Sabah’s Wilfred Bumburing was deputy CM in the Parti Bersatu Sabah government, Warisan’s Mohd Shafie Apdal was a former federal minister, while State Reform Party’s Jeffrey Kitingan and Sabah People’s Hope Party’s Lajim Ukin served as deputy federal ministers.

Except for Yong, all are still serving elected representatives, and all are in the opposition camp in the state. And none are pushovers – this is what Harapan has to keep in mind.

This is why I must tell Harapan today, show more respect for Sabah parties and their leaders.

In the scramble for seats come GE14, don’t get greedy. Allow the local opposition parties to contest more seats in the state and concentrate on your own weak areas in the peninsula.

Perhaps, Harapan could just concentrate on a few parliamentary seats in Sabah and help the local parties in the state seats. This is something they could work on.

After all, isn't the objective of Harapan and the Sabah parties similar? That is to defeat Umno-BN and end its dominance in Sabah politics?

A tall order indeed, but that doesn't mean it is impossible.

The strategy for Harapan will be a withdrawal from one battle to win the ultimate war, with Sabah as the deciding factor.

The coalition’s chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad has talked about Plan B, Plan C to defeat Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and BN.

Sabah could well be Harapan’s Plan D...