By Peter Sibon
KUCHING, Apr 30: Should a Dayak-based party be given the chance to take off again after both Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) and Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak Baru (PBDSB) were deregistered?
To some die-hard Dayak patriots like Bobby William, who was once the president of the now defunct PBDSB, the Registrar of Societies (ROS) should give it a second lease of life to cater for the need of Dayaks in Sarawak.
“Please revive PBDSB for the sake of the Dayaks,” Bobby told DayakDaily today.
He was reacting to speculations that Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin would set up another party to cater for his political needs as his current party – Bersatu, is now divided into two camps: one camp under its chairman and former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammad and another one led by him.
Bobby pointed out that if a new party could be approved by ROS, then PBDSB should be allowed to be reinstated.
“If registering a political party can be easily done. Why is it so difficult for ROS to reinstate PBDSB. We only technically didn’t comply to ROS,” said Bobby.
However, PBDS pioneer and former leader Tan Sri Dr James Jemut Masing disagreed with Bobby saying that Sarawak has enough political parties which can cater to everyone and every ethnic group.
“We have more than enough political parties. The saying which says ‘the more the merrier’ is detrimental to Dayak unity,” said Masing who is also president of Parti Rakyat Sarawak, an offshoot of PBDS.
Masing stressed that the “freedom of association” do not mean freedom to destabilise a community or nation which was not the intention of the founding fathers in writing the Federal Constitution.
“By allowing numerous parties to be established will have negative impact on a nation. It’s just like ‘freedom of speech’ doesn’t mean freedom to demonise anybody whom you don’t like,” he said.
Masing pointed out that ROS should not be too generous in creating new parties in Sarawak as Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) is a big enough platform to unite all the ethnic groups in the State.
“GPS is an ideal platform for Sarawak as its leaders represented all the ethnic groups,” he said.
GPS consisted of PBB, SUPP, PRS and PDP; whereby all the ethnic groups have represented.—DayakDaily
