By Roslan Mutu
KUCHING, Nov 10: State Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) should stop pointing fingers at others and look at themselves in the mirror, opined Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) deputy Youth chief Miro Simuh.
He said it seemed it is already in PKR’s DNA to blame others for anything that goes wrong with their party.
“It seems that is in their culture to find a scapegoat for anything that goes wrong in their party. But they have never look at themselves to find the answers,” Miro told DayakDaily today.
He added that PKR might even blame the GPS government for the internal squabbles between the supporters of PKR deputy presidential candidates Rafizi Ramli and Datuk Seri Azmin Ali that resulted in controversies in its Julau division.
Miro was responding to a Bernama report that quoted Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian as saying that the party would lodge a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) over alleged abuse of power by outsiders to derail its Lawas branch’s polls today.
Baru was quoted to have said that the branch’s management was notified at 11.30pm yesterday (Nov 9) that permission to use the Lawas Indoor Stadium had been withdrawn, thus causing the elections there to be almost scuppered.
“The excuse given was that in our application to the stadium’s management and the local authority, we had stated that it was for a thanksgiving function and not for political purposes,” he told reporters after casting his ballot during the branch’s polls, which was finally allowed to proceed as scheduled in Lawas today.
Baru, who won the division’s top post unopposed, denied the claim (thanksgiving function), saying that the application had clearly stated that it was for holding the branch’s elections and that all existing laws and by-laws would be adhered to.
“We had obtained the approval and had paid the RM500 rental to use the stadium, but at the eleventh hour, we were told we could not use it. This is an attempt at sabotage and abuse of power,” he said, adding that the instruction to withdraw the approval to use the facility was made by a senior state government official.
Baru, who is also Works Minister, said that although in the end the election process was allowed to proceed today, in the first place the episode should not have happened because the GPS-led state government had stated its willingness to cooperate with the Pakatan Harapan-led federal government.
He further claimed that similar sabotage attempts were also made to derail the PKR polls in the Lubok Antu and Julau divisions, but these were not at the last minute.
On the allegation, Miro, who is Serembu assemblyman, revealed that the state government had written a circular that it would not allow opposition parties to use its facilities.
“But it depends on the management of such facilities whether to allow it or not. But it’s based on their absolute discretion. Baru should have known about this circular,” said Miro.
Meanwhile, Miro urged Baru to disclose the details regarding the RM4.1 billion federal budget for Sarawak in 2019.
“As Minister of Works, he should explain whether the allocation for Sarawak will include the budget to continue the construction of the Pan Borneo Highway. Because if indeed it is, then they have breached the Malaysia Agreement 1963 for not treating Sarawak as an equal partner in terms of budget allocation into three equal parts,” said Miro. — DayakDaily
