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KUCHING, July 16: What Sarawak and Sarawakians need is to have more and stronger opposition representatives to speak for the people and to be their safeguards against the abuses of the ruling coalition, says Sim Kiat Leng.
In a statement, the special assistant to Sarawak Democratic Action Party (DAP) chairman Chong Chieng Jen, pointed out that Parti Sarawak Bersatu’s (PSB) reason of ‘for political stability’ for its collaboration with Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) is merely a feeble excuse.
“What political stability can PSB bring when it only holds three out of 82 State legislative assembly (DUN) seats?
“Unlike the political landscape in West Malaysia where the Pakatan Harapan (PH)-led government may have a wafer-thin majority or even become a minority government if either Barisan Nasional (BN) or Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) coalition pulls out from the Unity government.
“That is where GPS and BN contributed to the political stability of the country by joining PH to form the federal government,” Sim said.
He noted that in Sarawak, GPS holds 76 out of 82 DUN seats, constituting a supermajority and a very stable government.
“The addition of three PSB State assemblymen (ADUNs) to the existing 76-member government is thus completely insignificant in terms of government stability,” he asserted.
Instead, he said, the main concern in Sarawak politics is the lack of a strong opposition to provide sufficient check and balance.
“As a result, we see a government who has no qualms wasting RM30 million for a flag pole, now planning to build a new palace when the existing one is more than sufficient, buying an airline without considering the return on investment (ROI) in detail, spending tens of billions of public funds proposing to build the Automated Rapid Transit (ART) system without even laying out the full plan in DUN.
“With this super-majority of GPS, the people of Sarawak are being taken for granted, the DUN treated as a rubber stamp, and public funds spent at the absolute discretion of the power that be,” Sim said.
Sim emphasised further that what Sarawak and Sarawakians need politically is ‘not to make the 76-ADUN GPS stronger by increasing it to 79-ADUN strong’. — DayakDaily
