By Nancy Nais
KUCHING, Dec 12: Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) government and its leaders only turned into “brave people” championing Sarawak’s rights after the fall of Barisan Nasional (BN) as the Federal government in 2018, says Democratic Action Party (DAP) veteran Lim Kit Siang.
“If it was not for Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) win in the 14th General Election, GPS who was then part of BN’s coalition, would not be bold to fight like what they are doing now,” Lim said at a press conference in DAP headquarters today.
He was commenting on the passing of the the Federal Constitution to reflect the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) which will restore the status for Sarawak and Sabah as equal partners to Peninsular Malaysia.
A total of 199 members of Parliament backed the Bill without opposition, while 21 members were not present.
In supporting Chong Chieng Jen’s call for a stronger Opposition for good governance by DAP, Lim said he also understood the sentiment and disappointment of many when some of their electoral promises in 2018 were not delivered.
“PH only had 22 months governing as the Federal government before it was toppled.
“On the other hand, it is unfair to judge the PH government because things cannot be done within a short period of time, be it one month, one year or two years. Although we were initially given the mandate of five years to govern, we ended up having only 22 months and many of our electoral promises could not be delivered within such a short period,” Lim said.
He also explained another reason for the delay to fulfil manifesto promises was the fact that PH comprises of four different parties which are DAP, PKR, Bersatu and Amanah.
“There was resistance in the PH government on election and policy promises. We had to convince the other three parties to agree and not everyone agreed to it,” Lim said.
Earlier, Chong said DAP has always stood by the principle of good governance and integrity, which was proven before PH was removed from power.
Chong asserts that none of DAP’s 42 MPs had betrayed the trust of voters.
“We did not take a single cent from the people through corruption or cronyism. Instead, we tried our best to clean up the system and have saved the country billions of ringgit through reviews of the mega contracts awarded by the BN before 2018.
“Thus, this is a strong basis for our call for a stronger Opposition for good governance in the 12th Sarawak Election,” Chong said. — DayakDaily
