By Karen Bong
KUCHING, Dec 1: Parti Keadilan Rakyat’s (PKR) potential candidate Cherishe Ng aims to bring reform, recovery and renewal by steering Sarawak into becoming an engine of growth for Malaysia.
PKR Bayan Lepas MP Sim Tze Tzin, in highlighting this, said Malaysia including Sarawak and Sabah needed young leaders with fresh ideas to mend this nation and drive politics to a new level.
“This is what we mean by renewal. The current generation of politicians are too old with no new ideas. In Sarawak, the leaders have managed Sarawak for 58 years with some success but we need to bring Sarawak to greater heights.
“From Peninsula Malaysia, we see Sarawak as full of treasures that should be the engine of growth for Malaysia as other places have already been maxed out.
“Sarawak has an abundance of resources with smart and hardworking people but the State is still poor, so we need young people who can drive politics to a new level,” he told reporters at the Kuching International Airport today before flying back following a short visit to the city.
Sim pointed out that Cherishe Ng, the PKR potential candidate for Batu Lintang, represents the future of Malaysian politics to bring reform to the country and the Legislative Assembly with good governance, which has been PKR’s main agenda.
While Malaysia took steps to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, he added that the nation also needed to recover from what he termed to be “dirty politics “in the past two years.
“Ng is a young leader with idealism and intellect who can articulate issues well to be at the forefront of Malaysian politics,” he said.
Commenting on recent issues urging PKR Sarawak to focus on the 47 seats the party is contesting in the upcoming 12th Sarawak Election instead of wasting time on grabbing seats, Sim emphasised that PKR has always been a party that sacrificed much to deny the current government from winning outright.
“Although we know there are tremendous challenges ahead and it is very difficult to win in many parts throughout the country including Sarawak, we want to do our best to bring reform and give people a choice, so winning and losing is secondary.
“PKR has since 1999 made progress especially in rural areas of Sarawak. In the past, the government has always won with an outright majority but we now have some strength to influence the votes. So I hope Sarawakians will understand this,” he explained.
On the issue of seat allocation among the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition partners, Sim hopes all component parties can think rationally and uphold the spirit of give and take.
“It is not that we are greedy (to take on certain seats) as it is proposed following considerations that we have the edge and a better chance.
“We will respect the decision of the top leadership following negotiations,” he added. — DayakDaily
