Wan Junaidi defends PBB’s dominance in GPS
KUCHING: Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) veteran leader Dato Sri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar has defended the party’s dominance over the other three components of Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS).
He hinted that PBB with more than 300,000 registered members all over Sarawak has to be the dominant partner in GPS.
The Santubong MP was reacting to a comment in a Chinese-medium daily quoting Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) president Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Masing as saying that PBB’s hegemony will cause GPS to lose in elections and that PBB should have learnt one or two lessons from Umno’s downfall.
Quoting Masing further, the paper reported that if PBB domineers and refuses to listen to smaller component parties, GPS may face the same fate as Barisan Nasional (BN) in the coming state election.
Masing made these remarks when officiating at PRS’ Extraordinary Delegates Conference (EDC) in Sibu on Saturday.
To this, Wan Junaidi said: “I certainly do not understand what YB Tan Sri Dr James Masing is saying as I don’t have the benefit of reading or listening to the full text of his speech. If he talks about the allocation of seats, then we also must talk about winning.”
“There is no point getting more allocation of seats but lose them to the opposition,” he stressed.
Wan Junaidi, a former federal minister and former PBB supreme council member, said the GPS administration so far has been fair because there exists wellbalanced appointment right down the line from ministers, assistant ministers, political secretaries and community leaders like Temenggung, Penghulu, Ketua Kaum to councillors depending on the strength and size of respective parties in the GPS fold.
“On those party-less YB (elected representatives) who migrated to PBB, I knew PBB never asked those YBs or leaders to join us but they came to us despite our restriction. We could not say no if their struggle and aspiration is with us and not with any other component party. The option was with them and not with PBB.
“On the other hand, we could not afford to lose good leaders to be without party for too long otherwise they would join the opposition,” he added.
Now that Masing is in the Sarawak state administration, being a Deputy Chief Minister, which is an important post and carries big responsibility, he could have just voiced it out or spoken to Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg about his grouses, said Wan Junaidi.
PBB holds 46 of the 82 seats in the State Legislative Assembly. The rest are being held by PRS (11), SUPP (7), UPP (5), PDP (3), DAP (7) and PKR (3). Based on numbers game, PBB on its own can form a simple Sarawak government.
Masing was also quoted as saying that GPS and its leaders must be good listeners.
In a text of speech sighted by this paper, Masing had said: “For GPS to fight Pakatan Harapan (PH) come 2021, GPS must be seen by all Sarawakians as having a meaningful power sharing in terms of civil service, political positions, BoD (board of directors) in GLCs (government-linked companies).
“GPS and its leaders must be good listeners. GPS especially PBB does not take too kindly to its partners’ suggestions to better GPS as a political organisation. This was what happened to Umno prior to the 14th general election (GE14). I suggest we learn from history.
“Our input and our criticisms are for the betterment of GPS and are put forward in all sincerity for the good of our organisations,” he said, adding that the BN concept was correct, but implementation was faulty and this had led to the downfall of BN and its backbone party Umno which had ruled Malaya and later, Malaysia for 61 years.