Voon says she will not follow Baru Bian in joining PSB

KUCHING: Former national Parti Keadilan Rakyat ( PKR) Women vice- chief Voon Shiak Ni will not follow Selangau MP Baru Bian’s footstep in joining Parti Sarawak Bersatu ( PSB).

“For myself, ( I’ll) not ( be) joining PSB but I respect the decisions of all my comrades who have chosen to move forward via PSB,” she said.

Voon said former PKR members who had decided to follow Baru and Batu Lintang assemblyman See Chee How in joining PSB would have her moral support and blessing no matter where they were.

Baru, who is also Ba Kelalan assemblyman, and See together with more than 20 former PKR leaders announced that they had officially joined PSB during a press conference at the party’s headquarters at Jalan Pending here on Saturday.

Although there were mixed feelings about Baru and See joining PSB, Voon believed that it would not be a big issue for the pair to join another party as long as they could continue to do the right thing for the people, given they were both ‘ partyless’ when they joined PSB and were ‘ victims of circumstances.’

“As both of them were partyless, it was expected that they would explore the possibilities of engaging with a local- based political platform to advance their visions and aspirations for Sarawak.”

She said it was unfair to label former PKR leaders who joined PSB as ‘ katak’ (frog) as they only wanted to move forward.

Voon said both Baru and See were well- known activists in Sarawak and they had done a good job as people’s representative in the state for past nine years.

Nonetheless, she hoped that her former comrades in PKR would be well taken care of by the leadership in PSB and be given the due opportunities to unleash their potential in the party.

As previously reported, for now, Voon said she would continue to serve as a social activist in her capacity as a legal practitioner and would not rule out the possibility of joining or setting up a new local political party to serve the state together with her other comrades who had left

PKR.

Voon resigned from PKR on May 6, attributing her decision to the negativity plaguing the party with the recent sacking of party leaders, including those in Sarawak.

Baru quit PKR during the national political crisis at the end of February that resulted in the change in federal government, while See was subsequently issued a notice of termination of membership of PKR on April 1.

During the press conference on Saturday, Baru cited the two main reasons of them joining PSB were time constraints in registering a new party before the next state election set for 2021; and to avoid causing further split among the people in the state by forming a new political party.

Baru said he had invited Saratok MP Ali Biju and Puncak Borneo MP Willie Mongin, both of whom had quit PKR during the political crisis, to join PSB but the two MPs had yet to respond to the invitation.

Ali and Willie are now members of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia ( Bersatu) – one of the parties forming the federal ruling coalition Perikatan Nasional ( PN) – and are holding deputy minister’s posts in the federal government.