Where are the 10 seats, Masing asks Chong

KUCHING: Parti Rakyat Sarawak ( PRS) president Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Jemut Masing has challenged state DAP chairman Chong Chieng Jen to reveal the 10 seats Pakatan Harapan ( PH) is confident of winning in the upcoming 14th General Election (GE14).

He said there is no point for Chong to mislead the public with his guessing game.

“At best, PH can win in Bandar Kuching and perhaps Stampin in GE14. And even in Bandar Kuching, he may have to sacrifice his seat for other possible candidates from other PH component parties. And if he allows PH to take over Bandar Kuching from DAP, then he will be losing his favourite seat,” Masing told The Borneo Post yesterday.

The Deputy Chief Minister pointed out that PH should not dream of seats it will not be able to capture.

“So where are the 10 seats that he (Chong) is talking about?” he asked.

Masing was commenting on Chong’s recent remark that Sarawak PH has decided that it will focus only on 10 parliamentary seats which they are confident of winning.

Chong, who is also one of PH’s six vice-presidents, had said, while the coalition does plan to contest all the state’s parliamentary seats, the 10, which have yet to be announced, are the ones it is most confident of attaining.

“We will focus on 10 urban and semi-urban seats, including what we already have. Those are the 10 seats that we believe are quite achievable. We are trying to be realistic and 10 seats, for us, is a reasonable figure. In politics, while we want to be confident, we also have to be realistic,” Chong was quoted saying by an online news portal yesterday.

Chong, who is also Kota Sentosa assemblyman, had said that the sentiment in West Malaysia was that if Sarawak PH could deliver 10 seats, then the main opposition front could certainly capture Putrajaya.

According to Chong, although ten seats may seem like a small figure, actually it will be an increase of over 66 per cent, which he described as “good enough”.

Sarawak has 31 parliamentary seats. PH which consists of DAP, PKR, Parti Amanah Negara and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, currently holds six of the seats; namely Bandar Kuching, Stampin, Sarikei, Lanang, Sibu and Miri. Five of the seats are currently held by DAP, while the remaining one, which is Miri, is held by PKR.