By Karen Bong
KUCHING, Feb 27: Sarawak Association for Peoples’ Aspirations (SAPA) president Dominique Ng hopes that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will be appointed the next prime minister of Malaysia as promised in the last 14th General Election which led Pakatan Harapan (PH) to a momentous victory.
“It was a solemn promise by PH that Anwar, who was then in jail and upon his release and elected to Parliament, would be made the next prime minister of Malaysia.
“I think Malaysians have voted the PH with that hope and he (Anwar) should be given this chance in order to allow him to play out what PH had promised in the last election, since PH has only two years left of the term,” he told a press conference today.
Ng, who is a lawyer and social activist, however observed that until now, it seemed that everything was being done to prevent Anwar from becoming the next premier.
Noting that the overall feeling among Sarawakians was that they had been let down by PH in fulfilling its promises to East Malaysia in its manifesto, he believed that Anwar ought to be given his chance to do what PH had solemnly promised Sarawak.
He also observed that Malaysians and Sarawakians were largely angry with the attempt of a backdoor government with Pas and Umno in the fold, that could see the return of a corrupt Barisan Nasional (BN) government which the people had voted out.
“A corrupt government that we toppled in the last election was almost allowed to come back. It was almost like a nightmare to us.
“Had the ‘Sheraton gambit’ (where the crisis started following meetings of parties and leaders) succeeded, then the BN would come back with a vengeance too. Luckily, interim Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad objected,” he said.
On the proposal for a ‘unity’ government, Ng said he does not believe that a non-partisan government would ever work, nor did it seem appropriate at this point of time and to be headed by Dr Mahathir.
“He is not the right person to do it. The unity government that he (Dr Mahathir) seeks is to get every party on board with full authority to select whoever he likes to fill positions in the cabinet.
“It means that he would be answerable to no one. What policy is he following? He is supposed to follow the PH policy which was elected and by consensus made him the prime minister.
“That means he is bound to no one, not even the promise he made to hand over power to Anwar. I don’t think that is correct. It is against the system of parliamentary democracy,” he added.
He said that Malaysia was not in crisis as the crisis facing the nation now was created by Dr Mahathir who played a very big role in the current political instability.
“Had he done the right thing as a gentleman, an elder politician and statesman ought to have, he should have set a fixed time to hand over the reins of power. He promised to hand it over so there’s nothing lame duck about it.
“Further, the policies he is implementing will continue to be implemented by Anwar who is bound by the promises in the PH Manifesto. He cannot just do whatever he wants,” he stressed. —DayakDaily
