By DD Team
KUCHING, Oct 16: Parti Pesaka Bumiputera (PBB) vice-president Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah predicts that Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) will win the most only two to three seats in the upcoming State election.
“The way I see it, they may get one to two seats. The most I would say, I’m not being arrogant here, is that it will get three (seats),” Abdul Karim told DayakDaily in an exclusive interview here today.
He said even though PSB may look strong on the ground, its struggle as the ‘voice of the people’ as being portrayed by former Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Sarawak chief Baru Bian, who has since joined the party, is in fact, contradicting to the latter’s original struggle.
“He (Baru Bian) is always a fighter for the native especially on the native costmary rights (NCR) land and the environment. But he must know PSB is a party of tycoons. We know who are sponsoring them and who are behind them – (those who) have benefitted from the development Sarawak and who have got the (timber) concessions.
“He (Baru) has been a fighter but he has joined that party. (So), where is his principle?” asked Abdul Karim.
On one hand, Abdul Karim predicted that PSB will not perform, on the other, he believed that Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) will be able to retain its current seats or even more.
“I would be very happy if we can retain 72 seats which we have won in the last State election. But I have a strange feeling that we might get even better than that,” said Abdul Karim.
The Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture explained that his prediction was based on Gabungan Parti Sarawak’s sound policies which have been translated into reality.
“In the last three years, we have seen a lot of good policies such as coastal road and bridges, and they are not ‘air liur’ as claimed by the opposition leaders. You can see on the ground, the construction (of these infrastructure projects) are being done.
“I just came back from Kapit, riding on the motorbike. You can see the road from Sibu to Kapit and to Ng Mujong Bridge. It’s just like the bridge in Putrajaya.
“DAP (Democratic Action Party) and PKR on the other hand, have given us a lot of promises such as the 50 per cent tax collected in Sarawak to be returned back, 20 per cent of oil royalty, (but) they can’t deliver in 22 months (when) they were in the (federal) government.
“But we (GPS) are able to get the (five per cent) State Sales Tax which I would say, is a huge amount, about RM3 billion,” stressed Abdul Karim.
Meanwhile, Abdul Karim who is also Asajaya assemblyman welcomed challengers in the Malay-majority seat in the coming State election.
“(Even) PSB can put their candidate in Asajaya. At the same time, I invite as many (candidates) as possible to contest in Asajaya. I love to have many challengers,” he said.
In 2016 Sarawak State election, Abdul Karim who has been Asajaya assemblyman since 2001, won the seat in a straight fight against PKR’s candidate Abang Junaidi Abang Gom with a majority of 4,078 votes.
Go to DayakDaily talk show – “Spot On” – this coming Sunday (Oct 18) for more details of Abdul Karim’s exclusive interview. — DayakDaily
