KUCHING, May 21: The puzzlement displayed by some GPS leaders who claimed they were not aware of the MoU to support the formation of Perikatan Nasional has given rise to many questions.
Highlighting this, Ba Kelalan assemblyman Baru Bian questioned if all Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) leaders had been consulted before the memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed.
“Could it be that those few baffled GPS leaders were unaware because someone from among them signed the MoU without the agreement of those baffled?
“Or were the others expected to meekly go along with their big brother Parti Persaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB)’s decisions?” he asked in a statement today.
Baru was commenting about a news article on how some GPS leaders were baffled over a purported MoU signed by party heads in PN to affirm the coalition’s formation.
On Sunday (May 17), a day before the one-day parliamentary sitting, a press statement on the MoU was issued stating the agreement of Bersatu, Barisan Nasional, Pas, GPS, Parti Bersatu Sarawak (PBS) and Parti Solidariti Tanah Airku (Star), to form PN, for, among others, the administration and management of the government at federal and state level.
“I am equally baffled as to why GPS leaders themselves are baffled over the MoU signed by the various parties in PN to affirm the coalition’s formation.
“Are they so clueless that they do not know what they were signing? That would be a huge worry for Sarawakians. The GPS government has just signed an agreement with Petronas – did they know what they were signing then?” he continued to question.
Baru, who is also Selangau MP, however, opined that there was actually no puzzlement for Sarawakians because it was a very plain and obvious scenario for ordinary Sarawakian to understand.
“When you supported (Tan Sri) Muhyiddin Yassin as Prime Minister and now sit down with him in the same cabinet that formed the now ‘backdoor’ PN government, obviously you are one and united as the PN government.
“You are officially married to all the members of PN, especially Umno and Pas that you had in the past condemned. Now you are claiming that you are not married? Or not officially married? Is there no embarrassment or shame in any of the GPS component party leaders at this blatant hypocrisy?
“GPS, you cannot have your cake and eat it too. Sharing a bed with Umno/Pas and yet insisting that you are not married is too absurd for Sarawakians to swallow,” he said.
Baru reminded that Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg had in June 2018 said that PBB could be destroyed in the 2021 state elections if it did not distance itself from BN and announced they would no longer be part of it.
He added that in March this year, the chief minister did an apparent u-turn when he announced that GPS would be supporting the federal government in the form of PN plus GPS.
“Effectively, that was a statement that GPS had decided to support Umno again, after two years of their anti-Umno, anti-Malaya grandstanding,” he said.
Thus, Baru emphasised that it was time for Sarawakians to seriously consider if they were willing to trust Sarawak’s future to GPS.
“It is also time for the ‘weaker’ component parties of GPS to seriously reassess if they should continue in this unequal alliance with PBB and it’s ‘one is more equal than the rest’ concept of partnership,” he added. —DayakDaily
