KUCHING, Aug 21: Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) claims that there is an ongoing campaign to sully the party by alleging it is sponsored by political heavyweights who are in Pakatan Harapan (PH), Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) or Barisan Nasional (BN).
Party president Voon Lee Shan alleged the attempt to smear PBK’s name is because in the past months, they have gained excellent support from the general public in the quest for state independence.
“It is not unexpected that PBK has placed itself in the limelight among our detractors because these people had sought to pull a handbrake on us (sic) for moving forward in a very fast manner,” Voon said in a press conference here today.
Therefore, to clear all doubts, PBK said they want to declare to the general public that they are not sponsored by any individual or party aligned to PH, GPS or BN as speculated.
“I also want to clarify that no crony of PH, GPS or BN is sponsoring our cause. Our party only has one mission, that is to seek independence for Sarawak by constitutional means under domestic and international laws. In our quest for independence, there is no way PBK will work with PH or any political party from Malaya.
“We also urged our supporters to stay behind us and to not be distracted by GPS. This is because they (GPS) were part of BN before and they have no desire to see Sarawak become an independent nation,” Voon claimed, adding that GPS’s fight for autonomy will not see Sarawak’s rights protected or returned.
He opined that the GPS government should know that Sarawak will lose many of its rights soon, and claimed many Sarawakians would lose their identity and economic control over the state’s resources and economy due to ‘human colonism’ and ‘economic imperialism’.
PBK also sees the GPS government as weak in preventing Malaya from encroaching into areas of business and land.
Voon further claimed that in the recent years, Sarawak has lost its marine wealth, oil and gas rights and native lands to mega companies from Malaya and huge tracts of state land to the federal government.
“The loss of revenues from marine wealth, oil and gas and other resources could perhaps be in a region of RM1 billion per day to the federal coffer. This is not a small amount of money. Therefore, the fight for autonomy by GPS, but, being not a fight for independence for Sarawak is not acceptable to PBK,” Voon said. — DayakDaily
