Masing not in favour of fielding direct BN candidates in GE14
KUCHING: Fielding direct Barisan Nasional (BN) candidates may not work well for the ruling coalition in Sarawak in the coming 14th general election (GE14).
This is because although Sarawak BN has done that during the last state election, it doesn’t seem to work very well, Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Masing claimed.
“Personally, I have never thought about fielding direct BN candidates, but the Chief Minister will have to decide on that.
“And I’m sure he will decide on what is the best way to handle the problems within the state BN, especially on seats that are being lobbied by the United People’s Party ( UPP) and Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP),” he said.
He made these comments when asked his views on the statement by Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi in a Malay daily yesterday.
The Deputy Prime Minister was reported to have said that he did not rule out the possibility of adopting ‘BN direct candidates’ to resolve the tussle for seats between BN component parties in GE14.
Masing, who is Parti Rakyat Sarawak ( PRS) president, said Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg would have to look at the problem besetting UPP and SUPP very carefully before deciding on it.
“If anyone asks for my advice, I will tell them to give our Chief Minister the space and time to decide it.
“There are probably three to four more months to look at the manner of doing it,” he said.
However, Masing said if BN decided to field direct BN candidates, PRS would not be affected, but BN in general would be affected.
He believed that if a component of BN such as SUPP is affected, it will affect everybody.
“That is why I’m quite interested to know and how best the top leadership can handle this because if one is affected, it will affect the whole organisation and therefore we have to handle it very carefully,” he said.