KUCHING, June 20: Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) will seek a meeting with Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg to explain issues related to the suggestions by the party for Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) to become a single multiracial party and the use of the state’s reserves.
According to PRS secretary-general Datuk Joseph Salang Gandum, there was an urgent need for such a meeting as the two issues had been twisted out of their original respective context.
“We would want to have a meeting with the chief minister so as to let him know we feel the need to explain not about his leadership but why our president has made the suggestions to form a single multiracial party and on why we have to spend some of our reserves because we have so many needs on the ground,” Salang told reporters after the party’s Supreme Council meeting at its headquarters here today.
He said PRS president Tan Sri Dr James Jemut Masing had mentioned about the two issues on two separate occasions, but what he said were later spun out of their original respective context.
“Our party president only suggested that there be a single multiracial party. This is just a suggestion because the party (GPS) is not registered yet. He said this with the endorsement of the supreme council. He does not speak alone on this (issue).
“But whatever it is, whether it is accepted or not by the other component parties in GPS we do not know. If it is not accepted, we will have to abide by the decision made by all the component parties. There is no confusion with regards to whether he was demanding other component parties to accept the suggestion.”
Salang lambasted a certain Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) leader, who is also a Cabinet member, for being arrogant and for failing to check with Masing on the suggestion before attacking him in the press.
The reason for suggesting a single multiracial party was to ensure that it would be acceptable and ‘saleable’ to the rakyat and to ensure the state government could win in the next state election, which must be held by 2021, explained Salang.
Salang also highlighted the fact that another Cabinet member who criticised Masing, based on the ‘spun’ article by a local daily, actually also needed more funding from the state’s reserves to develop his constituency, which is still considered rural. — DayakDaily
