KUCHING, Sept 9: PRS president Tan Sri Dr James Jemut Masing describes PSB as a confused party which lacks the vision to develop Sarawak as it is led by a group of disgruntled leaders.
“It’s a very strange way of showing support when they themselves claim to be a rural-focussed party, unless of course that PSB (Parti Sarawak Bersatu) is really urban-centric in its development approach.
“PSB is a confused party, filled up by confused and disgruntled politicians. When an organisation is led by those group of disgruntled politicians, we, therefore, don’t expect a clear vision to develop this country,” Masing asserted in a statement today, referring to PSB’s criticism of Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS)’s efforts to develop rural accessibility.
The Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) chairman was commenting on PSB president Datuk Seri Wong Soon Koh’s rebuttal of Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg’s statement yesterday, that PSB’s stance was to provide constructive criticism to the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) administration.
Wong had opined that Abang Johari should not look at PSB and its leaders as ‘enemies’ of the state government because they have proven in the past that they had ‘served the state government faithfully and with integrity’.
In his earlier statement issue yesterday, Abang Johari had made it clear that his main intention was to reconcile PSB, which was earlier known as United People’s Party, with the Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP).
“When I took over as Chief Minister, I continued with this policy where Dato Sri Wong was retained as a minister. All these were meant to give time for the two factions to be reconciled.
“Unfortunately, intentionally or otherwise, PSB leadership roped in members of the component parties of GPS knowing fully well that this would jeopardise the teamwork in GPS. GPS has a policy of “you touch one, you touch all” and PSB’s action is against our effort to unite Sarawakians.
“(And), based on the latest activities of PSB, it is evident that the party is no more interested in cooperation and now in the frolic of its own against GPS with further inclusion of disgruntled members of other parties,” Abang Johari disclosed in a statement issued yesterday.
The Chief Minister also revealed that he even requested leaders of the community as well as corporate leaders to help in the reconciliation but to no avail.
Prior to this, Wong took a swipe at Abang Johari for alleging that PSB was made up of disgruntled politicians, even though Abang Johari did not refer to PSB when he made the remark recently at the Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatumini convention in Miri last Saturday (Sept 5). Wong expressed certainty the chief minister was clearly referring to his party. — DayakDaily
