Which party is not fishing for votes? — Vernon
KUCHING: Pakatan Harapan (PH) Sarawak information chief Vernon Kedit would like to remind Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Douglas Uggah Embas that a manifesto is indeed a document that lays out the promises of a party and its sole purpose is to seek votes.
“May I remind the good deputy chief minister that a manifesto is indeed a document that lays out the promises of a party and its sole purpose is to seek votes. BN ( Barisan Nasional) will also be fishing for votes soon and promising heaven and earth, but like many BN promises, very little is delivered,” he said in a press statement yesterday.
Vernon was responding to Uggah’s statement that PH’s guarantee on the five thrusts for Sarawak is fishing for votes, but for BN, they are implementing development not because there is an election.
Citing a glaring example, Vernon questioned Uggah whether he remembered how many times the BN government had promised the Iban voters in Sri Aman that BN would build a hospital in Sri Aman and unashamedly did earthbreaking ceremonies every time an election was around the corner to fish for votes.
“I am sure he attended several of those earth-breaking ceremonies but until today, where is the Sri Aman Hospital? What development is he implementing when old promises from four elections ago, he cannot even keep?”
Vernon said the f irst and fundamental thrust of the Pakatan Harapan New Deal is to return the right to a territorial government, which means that PH will recognise Sarawak as an equal partner in Malaysia and not the 13th ‘state’ anymore.
“We will return Sarawak to its original position as a Territory as in the Malaysia Agreement of 1963. This is the most important restoration of all of Sarawak’s rights as per the Malaysia Agreement of 1963 and Pakatan Harapan has boldly promised this as its first thrust.”
He said this is what al l Sarawakians, regardless of political leanings, truly want, adding that every Sarawakian, whether on the street or in the village, wants Sarawak to be a territory again.
“We were never a state or ‘negeri’ until the PBB-led BN government of Sarawak in 1976 helped Umno to downgrade Sarawak from a ‘ territory’ to the 13th ‘state’. It was Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Douglas Uggah’s own party that led the Sarawakian MPs at the time in downgrading Sarawak to the 13th ‘state’, and this he cannot deny.”
Vernon therefore challenged Uggah to right this wrong and use the power he and his fellow BN Sarawak parliamentarians hold in their hands to redress this great erosion of Sarawak’s rights.
“Go to the prime minister and tell him that Sarawakians want to return to being a territory, not a state. Do it now and prove to Sarawakians that a local party like PBB can protect and amend the rights of Sarawak. Do it before the elections and stop with the delaying tactics of only announcing the London mission findings at the right time.”
In noting that PH will make Sarawak a territory again and restore the pride of Sarawak, Vernon asked whether PBB-led Barisan Nasional Sarawak can do what all Sarawakians desire and restore Sarawak to being a ‘territory’.
“If it cannot, then it should move aside and let Pakatan Harapan do what BN has failed to do for 54 years.”