KUCHING, May 19: Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) has betrayed and caused injustice to Sarawakians by supporting the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition in allowing PAS into the federal government, claims DAP Sarawak chairman Chong Chien Jen.
“GPS has betrayed Sarawak by putting PAS in federal power, jeopardising the secularism of Sarawak and Malaysia. What they have done now by supporting the Umno PAS government is not only putting the corrupt regime back in power but at the same time, the GPS is putting the religious bigots of PAS in power who is definitely a threat. This has thereby undermining Sarawak’s multi-racial and multi-religious social structure.
“There is no way that GPS can shield Sarawak from the policies and laws implemented by the federal government. Take for examples, our children’s education, the healthcare system, financial system, business ecosystem, all of these are part and parcel of our everyday lives and they will all be subject to inputs from PAS ministers and their ideology in the cabinet,” Chong said in a statement.
Saying ‘the cat is finally out of the bag’, Chong added that it was not a surprise that GPS had now become a formal coalition with Umno and PAS.
“The moment GPS joined PN cabinet to form the backdoor government, they were already in one coalition. In our system, the cabinet acts as one and all cabinet decisions are the collective decisions of all members of the cabinet.
“Therefore, it is ridiculous to even suggest that a political party is part of the cabinet but not in the coalition government with the other members of the cabinet,” Chong said, adding that this had been GPS’ initial justification for forming the government together with PAS and Umno.
He called it naïve and ridiculous to think that the Umno-PAS-led federal government would be good for Sarawak.
Chong believed that no amount of allocations, even additional ones, could compensate for what that combination could do to the country’s fundamental social structure and system.
He also cited the corrupt practices under Umno’s administration which he said could be epitomised in the 1MDB case and the infamous “RM2 million is just my pocket money” statement made by former Umno treasurer Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor in the High Court.
“The discharge of Riza Aziz from his charges in court is another indication of the return of the kleptocratic regime. We will see more of such incidents unfolding themselves in the near future as those involved in corruption charges will one by one be discharges on agreements that they return part of their loots to the government.
“To put it in simple terms, the Riza Aziz case set the clear precedent that one can steal RM100 and if he is caught, he can get scot-free by returning RM50. If he is not caught, he gets to enjoy the whole of the RM100 stolen money,” Chong said. —DayakDaily
