PRS to make sure every party in GPS treated equally – Masing

KUCHING: Parti Rakyat Sarawak ( PRS) will make sure that the newly-formed Gabungan Parti Sarawak ( GPS) will be a meaningful coalition to Sarawakbased parties and the people of Sarawak.

Its president Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Masing said PRS would make sure that every party in the coalition has equal say in all things.

“GPS must be a meaningful coalition to the Sarawak- based parties. The size ( big ones) must not control the small guys and everybody must have the say.

“Those are the things that we have to work out in the next few weeks. We have to do it. We don’t have the luxury of time. We have to change ourselves very soon so that we can become relevant to Sarawak in the state election.

“In two years’ time we have to be ready for it,” he said after the Sarawak Barisan Nasional ( BN) leadership meeting at Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu ( PBB) headquarters here yesterday.

Earlier, Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg announced that the component parties of Sarawak BN – Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu Sarawak ( PBB), Sarawak United People’s Party ( SUPP), Parti Rakyat Sarawak ( PRS) and Progressive Democratic Party ( PDP) – had left BN to form GPS.

Masing, who is deputy chief minister, said what is important is for the new coalition to cater for Sarawak’s interest and for Sarawak alone; fight for Sarawak and to be purely a Sarawak-based coalition.

He emphasised that GPS must be a coalition that allows the people to have a say in all of the issues affecting them.

He assured that GPS would head in that direction – equal say and power sharing – because the voters would be watching.

“We have a very smart group of voters. They will know. Remember a Chinese saying which says: ‘You may change the soup but not the herb’.

“So in our case, we must change the herb at the same time; not just the name of the soup only.

“We have to change the herb also to make our coalition saleable to the people of Sarawak,” he said.

Masing said the main reason BN lost the 14th general election was because Umno was in control.

He noted that in BN, everything was Umno, and that it was only BN in name but Umno was in control.

“PRS will make sure that this GPS will take into account the voice of all parties and that it must be a meaningful coalition and not like Umno before.

“That is why BN lost because Umno was always in control,” he added.

Masing informed that GPS was formalised during the meeting whereby all the component parties agreed that they had to leave BN because they could not sell it anymore.

“The brand is not saleable,” he said.

PDP president Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing said GPS was formed as a local coalition so they could fully focus on fighting for Sarawak’s rights and the people’s interest.

“I believe PDP members and supporters will agree with the move and support our decision,” he said.