The Borneo Post

Sarawak Peace Party denies vote split claim

- By Conny Banji reporters@theborneop­ost.com

SIBU: Sarawak Peace Party ( Peace) yesterday refuted allegation­s that its candidates are contesting in Sibu and Lanang with the sole aim of splitting the vote.

Its Lanang candidate Priscilla Lau said they are instead contesting in the election because they “love Sarawak too much”.

“We (candidates) are the ones who truly sacrifice our fi nances and reputation to say ‘ Sarawak First’. So we stand on Sarawak’s side no matter what happens.

“Many have scolded us that we should be ashamed of ourselves. Why should we be ashamed? We are not traitors to Sarawak.

“We are the only ones putting Sarawak fi rst. Neither Pakatan Harapan ( PH) nor Barisan Nasional ( BN) puts Sarawak first,” she told reporters here yesterday.

Also present were Sibu candidate Jamie Tiew and the party’s election chairperso­n Moh Hiong King.

Lau also stressed that they are contesting in the election because

We (candidates) are the ones who truly sacrifice our finances and reputation to say ‘Sarawak First’. So we stand on Sarawak’s side no matter what happens. Many have scolded us that we should be ashamed of ourselves. Why should we be ashamed? We are not traitors to Sarawak. Priscilla Lau, Lanang candidate

Sarawak needs a voice, something which both BN and PH have failed to provide.

“Firstly, BN does not deserve the mandate to represent us for another five years. They’ve had our mandate for the last 55 years to get it right. So whatever is stated in their manifesto is of no significan­ce to us Sarawakian­s.”

As for PH, Lau said the opposition coalition does not deserve the mandate to represent Sarawakian­s either because it has failed the people on so many fronts for as many years as BN.

“The biggest failure was when DAP leader Lim Kit Siang sat in the very parliament­ary sitting which passed the law to reduce Sarawak’s status from ‘ negara’ to ‘ negeri’ ( nation to state) in 1976, and caused us 42 years of lost income and very much suffering.

“Lim Kit Siang never enlightene­d us that Sarawak was in fact a ‘ negara’ who had autonomous rule over her own country.

“PH and BN both acted to our detriment and till today, neither has said that they will seek for the Amendment Act 354 Section 2 to be repealed so that each of Sabah and Sarawak’s original status as an equal partner to the Federation of Malaysia is restored,” she said.

She promised that should the party’s candidates be given the mandate to sit in parliament, they would look into the legal aspects of whether the multiple breaches and violations of MA63 constitute a consensual and willful discontinu­ance of the internatio­nal treaty by the federal and Sarawak and Sabah state government­s and internatio­nal law on treaties.

 ??  ?? (From left) Lau, Moh and Tiew during the press conference yesterday.
(From left) Lau, Moh and Tiew during the press conference yesterday.

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