KOTA KINABALU: Parti Warisan is set to look for a "smart partnership" and is keeping its options open to ties with either Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) or even Barisan Nasional.

       Warisan president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal said that the party was not closing their doors to negotiate with any party and was looking for the best option available.

       "We are keeping all options open. It does not matter with whom, we are not closing the doors and rejecting all," he replied when asked if Warisan was prepared to work with GRS or Barisan following changing political landscape nationally.

       "Going alone won't be easy. If there is a concept of working together, similar to Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), with no affiliation to any party but just working closely with any government of the day at the Federal level, we will explore all these areas," he said.

       However, Shafie said that Warisan would continue to first strengthen its own position before looking at the options of working together with any party which can have a partnership ahead of the general elections.

       He said it would be meaningless for them with eight MPs and 18 assemblymen to work with any party if such a partnership would only weaken Warisan or even kill it.

       "We are not only thinking of Warisan but also thinking of Sabahan interest and at the same time we want to unite Malaysians at large as Warisan is truly a multi-racial party as compared to other parties in the country," he told reporters after chairing the party's supreme council meeting Saturday (March 19).

       Shafie said that Warisan was looking for a partnership as the national scenario had changed following the Melaka, Sarawak and Johor elections.

       He said there was a need for inclusiveness of all communities in Malaysia under a government.

       On a question about Rafizi Ramli's announcement that he would be contesting the deputy presidency of PKR, Shafie said that all parties should undergo rejuvenation. However, he declined to further comment on the internal affairs of PKR.

       Relations between Shafie and PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has remained thorny especially after Anwar led the national Opposition Pakatan Harapan to sign a bipartisan agreement with the government.