KUCHING, Aug 5: Sarawak Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) has brushed off criticism by Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) leaders calling Pakatan Harapan (PH) a hypocrite in calling for local council elections.
Sarawak PKR Information Chief Desmond Kho said even though the Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in the past did not agree with the local council elections, the decision to implement it would still be up to the cabinet.
“In response to my appeal to the Chief Minister (Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg) to ‘Give Sarawakians a Voice’ by implementing local council elections in tandem with developments in the rest of Malaysia, Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) propaganda machine responded and said that it is wrong to criticise the Chief Minister for wanting local council elections and suggests that his views are infallible because Abang Johari ‘banyak makan garam’.
“It also suggests that PH’s ongoing implementation of local council elections is hypocritical as Tun Mahathir has gone against it in the past.
“However, this only proves that PH is a democratic and dynamic coalition, made strong because different ideas are all taken into consideration.
“This shows even though the Prime Minister may personally disagree with a policy, it is clear that if the cabinet as a whole approves of it, it will be put to vote in Parliament.
“PH acts as a democracy, where conflicting opinions have their say in arriving at decisions,” said Kho in a statement today.
He said it seemed that such a concept was foreign to Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), as after all the party coalition never once disagreed with the Chief Minister.
He said GPS, an incarnation of the Barisan Nasional (BN) repeated the mantra of ‘jangan lawan tauke’ where dissent would be clamped down upon, where over the decades despite many anti-Sarawakian policies in the Barisan Nasional era, component parties of the local BN such as Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) and PBB refused to oppose and even participated freely in the erosion of Sarawakian rights.
“Remember, that even when (former Prime Minister) Datuk Seri Najib Razak was embroiled in the 1MDB scandal, Abang Johari pledged total support for him in the federal election.
“Furthermore, Abang Johari is acting like a warlord presiding over his subjects asking local councillors and village chiefs to ‘go to war’ in upcoming elections.
“This is not giving back autonomy to Sarawakians. This is very much consolidation of the autocratic nature of his GPS government,” said Kho.
In contrast, Kho pointed out, PH is a party which allows for autonomy to disagree and to influence decisions, that even the opinions of the Prime Minister are secondary to the democratic will of the people.
“PKR Sarawak is intent on getting back for the people what they have lost in the last 50 over years. The people can judge for themselves such conduct which was clearly reflected in the recent Parliamentary voting on the constitutional amendment to recognise Sarawak as equal partners.
“This was clearly the first step and would have set the footing to returning autonomy to Sarawak. The record shows that GPS abstained which ended up scuttling the whole process,” said Kho.
He claimed that GPS used doublespeak to suggest that PH is eating away the state rights when in truth it had lost most of those rights away long ago under their regime.
“Even now they act as if they know more than everyone, condescendingly pointing out that Abang Johari ‘banyak makan garam’ and suggesting that what he says is beyond contestation.
“Applying this warped logic, we cannot ever disagree with anyone who ‘banyak makan garam’. Are they suggesting that the ‘rakyat’ are servants, who should hand over all our rights to them as masters? Or are they are just plain salty because their party does not allow them to think for themselves?
“If so, don’t spread your ‘jangan lawan tauke’ culture to our future generations. Our youths deserve more respect as the future of our country, further as Sarawakians all deserve to be listened to, they deserve autonomy not in the form of autocracy but democracy,” said Kho. — DayakDaily
