PBDS Baru to announce seats on nomination day, says deputy chief

KUCHING: The exact number of seats to be contested by PBDS Baru and their final list of candidates for the coming general election will only be known on nomination day.

Its deputy president Patrick Anek Uren said PBDS Baru would contest in the GE14 despite the various handicaps facing the party.

“We will be fielding candidates in at least 10 seats, but the exact number will only be known on nomination day. We will try to even field at least one woman candidate.

“The party is now in the midst of preparing the manifesto,” said Patrick, who acted as the party’s spokesman, when speaking to reporters after the party’s supreme council meeting yesterday.

To a question, he said seats to be contested by PBDSB were secret although he believed many could have guessed them based on the backgrounds of potential candidates from the party.

“We are contesting seats where Dayaks make up the majority of voters. But we are contesting not as Dayaks against anybody...we want to promote fairness and justice for everyone in Sarawak,” said Anek, himself a former MP during his days in now defunct SNAP.

On the manifesto, he said it would

We will be fielding candidates in at least 10 seats, but the exact number will only be known on nomination day. We will try to even field at least one woman candidate. — Patrick Anek Uren, PBDS Baru deputy president

include proposing to the government to give RM1,000 monthly remuneration for housewives aged 24 to 45 as motherhood maintenance.

He said Malaysia is rich and should be able to come up with such remuneration as a recognition to the roles played by women, especially housewives, in nurturing the younger generation.

The manifesto will also include asking for a review of Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), and seeking a referendum if necessary in order to get the full benefits granted and provided for within the terms of MA63.

“I want to emphasise here that we are not asking for independence from Malaysia...we are asking that our independence from Britain by merging with Malaya to form Malaysia to have beneficial effect to the people of Sarawak, which until today we have not got it,” he said.

He added that the review of MA63 would include getting Article 1(2) of the Federal Constitution, which was amended in 1976 to downgrade the status of Sarawak to one of 13 states in the federation, to be amended again, rescinded or abolished.

The manifesto would also include asking the government to be give equal development funds to every MP including those from the opposition.

“We also want a mechanism to separate government funding for elections. Now, they are spending government money which is supposed to be for public development, but is being used to promote Barisan Nasional.

“This should not be allowed. If it is allowed, we should follow what is happening in the United States, where public funding of elections by parties be reimbursed to the parties dollar-todollar,” he said.

The manifesto will also seek to ensure multiracial composition in government departments to reflect Sarawak’s plural society.