KUCHING, July 2: Bandar Kuching MP Kelvin Yii today called on Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg and other Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) leaders to apologise to Sarawakians for misleading them to vote for Barisan Nasional (BN) all these years.
Dr Yii said this in response to a Malaysian Insight report alleging that the chief minister claimed BN did not fight for Sarawak’s interest and that the state government was bound by the BN parliamentary whip.
“I thus urge Abang Johari and the leaders of the current GPS to apologise to the people of Sarawak for misleading us all these years even when they were fully aware of the real situation.
“Their sincerity to uphold the interest of people is strongly in question, especially by their own admission, they deliberately chose to toe the line to protect their own positions instead,” said Dr Yii in a statement today.
Abang Johari, during the Redeems Gawai Carnival on Saturday night, said one of the reasons why Sarawak parties exited BN to form GPS was because Sarawak wanted to be politically independent from Putrajaya and to be free from the parliamentary whip to enable Sarawak to regain its eroded rights.
“I am puzzled by the recent statement by Chief Minister Abang Johari claiming that ‘BN did not fight for Sarawak’s interest’ and that they were bound by the BN parliamentary whip and even if constitution or laws that negatively affected the state are tabled, whether they liked it or not, they couldn’t say no and had to follow,” said Dr Yii.
He added that Abang Johari and other state leaders were downright misleading the people because before the election they had described Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak as “the best prime minister” and also stressed that only BN could take care of the interest of the state.
“They cannot conveniently push the blame to BN as they are accomplice to the failures and bad policies of BN themselves. Whether they are bound by the parliamentary whip or not, it is a deliberate choice to either follow or uphold the interest of the people.
“It is also a deliberate choice to continue to remain in the coalition if what they claim is true that BN did not protect the rights of Sarawak. But instead, even after all those years, they made a deliberate choice to toe the line and remain in the coalition that, according to their own words, did not take care of our state,” said Dr Yii.
“Are these the leaders we want to lead our state in the 2021 state elections? Leaders that did not fight for our rights and claim they had no choice but to follow when they clearly had the choice not to do so,” said Dr Yii. — DayakDaily
