KUCHING, May 16: State Barisan Nasional (BN) has yet to hold its supreme council meeting while national BN held one two nights ago.
Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) president Tan Sri Dr James Jemut Masing said the Sarawak coalition is still part of national BN.
Masing who is Deputy Chief Minister revealed that a BN supreme council meeting was called two nights ago with BN’s new chairman Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi chairing the meeting.
“We had our meeting two nights ago. We were told to let the new chairman of the supreme council (of BN) to chart the course,” said Masing at a press conference today after the party held its supreme council meeting at its headquarters at Jalan Wan Alwi.
He reaffirmed that the Sarawak BN coalition is still part of national BN and there was still no plans or discussions yet for state BN coalition part ways with BN and formed its own Sarawak coalition.
“No plan yet, we haven’t look into it yet. That is why we are having a meeting with our own supreme council members,” said Masing when asked if there was a meeting or discussion on state BN forming its own Sarawak coalition.
He also said there was no date fixed for a state BN supreme council meeting but expected it to be very soon.
State BN consists of four parties — Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), PRS, Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) and Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP).
There are 31 parliamentary seats. The May 9 general election saw state BN losing 12 seats, including the six Chinese seats it failed to wrest back and six semi-rural and rural seats comprising Puncak Borneo (PBB), Mas Gading (PDP), Saratok (PDP), Lubok Antu (PRS), Selangau (PRS) and Julau (PRS).
On that morning’s discussion, Masing said leaders of the younger generation were given the opportunity to talk and he listened.
He said the decision of the leaders of the younger generation was to keep status quo for the party for the time being.
Meanwhile, BN chairman Ahmad Zahid was recently reported as saying that any negotiation to form state government or opposition pacts had to be done en bloc with BN.
“This means that any parties which want to negotiate will have to talk to BN as a whole and not just with a single party in the coalition,” he was quoted as saying at a press conference at UMNO headquarters on Monday (May 14). — DayakDaily
