By Roslan Mutu
KUCHING, Oct 14: Mulu assemblyman Datuk Gerawat Gala is confident that Baram incumbent Dato Anyi Ngau can deliver the parliamentary seat for Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) in the upcoming 15th General Election (GE15).
He said his confidence was based on two factors: Anyi’s good performance in serving the people in Baram and the voters’ sentiment, as proven during the 2021 Sarawak Election, where the three State seats under Baram were all won by GPS with a convincing majority.
The three State seats under Baram are Mulu, Telang Usan, and Marudi.
“As far as my Mulu constituency is concerned, I have been working very closely with our MP, YB Dato Anyi Ngau. He is a very diligent and hardworking wakil rakyat.
‘So, as far as Baram parliamentary seat is concerned, we are confident, I’m not saying that we will definitely win, but we have sufficient support to ensure that GPS will retain the Baram parliamentary seat based on the results of the recent State election in December 2021 where all the three State seats were won very convincingly,” Gerawat told DayakDaily today.
He reiterated that as for Mulu, as far as the constituency was concerned, Anyi has solid support from the voters, who are mostly from the Orang Ulu community.
“I must be ready to say that as far as Mulu voters are concerned, the majority will support Anyi Ngau. He will win the majority vote in the Mulu constituency,” he said, adding that Anyi’s election results have jumped tremendously from his debut in 2013 and the second election results during GE14 in 2018.
“When I looked at his (Anyi) performance as a wakil rakyat, his first time when he contested as an MP (in 2013), he only won with a few hundred votes. But the second time he contested, he won by 1,990 votes.
“So, that was a very big jump on his majority votes. So, I can say that he is performing as an MP. If he is not performing as an MP, his votes will not be as it was in the second round,” said Gerawat.
Gerawat, who is a Parti Pesaka Bersatu (PBB) vice-president, stressed that it was crucial for GPS to win as many seats as possible to fight for a better deal for Sarawak.
“Currently, GPS has 19 out of 31 parliamentary seats in Sarawak. Of course, if you ask me, GPS aspires to capture all 31 seats if possible. Our target is at least 28 to 29 seats. This is important for Sarawakian voters to understand that right now, we need a very strong voice, a very strong representation in Parliament,” he said.
Gerawat pointed out that with a solid voice from Sarawak, the Federal Government will pay more attention to its needs.
“If out of the 31 seats we have 31 GPS MPs, people or our colleagues in West Malaysia, Sabah, and the Federal Government will definitely pay attention to what Sarawak’s needs are and our requests.
“For a very clear example, on the MA63 (Malaysia Agreement 1963) negotiation, last time under BN (Barisan Nasional), we were not able to do what we wanted because we are one out of thirteen in BN. It was only when we left BN and formed GPS that we have a very solid and strong platform to articulate Sarawak’s rights under MA63,” said Gerawat, who is also Deputy Minister in the Premier’s Department (Labour, Immigration, and Project Monitoring)
Gerawat was optimistic that with solid support from the voters, GPS could fight more for Sarawak.
“That’s why we are able to get back our rights back over oil and gas onshore Sarawak, and Petronas now have to offer Sarawak first right of refusal over participation in any offshore oil and gas. That way, we are able to get our five per cent sales tax on oil and gas and a few other things that we can get. Other local issues here, we can seek that out. The most important thing is that we want a very strong and united voice in Parliament,” he added. — DayakDaily
