State polls: Sarawak needs time as Covid-19 danger still around — Aspirasi chief
KUCHING: Sarawak People’s Aspiration Party (Aspirasi) president Lina Soo insists that Sarawak needs time for recovery and healing before the next state election could be called.
She observes that ‘Covid-19 is still raging, and Sarawakians are hardly out of the woods yet’.
In this regard, she opines that the next state polls should be put on hold, at least until the Emergency Order on Sarawak is lifted.
“Until the Yang di-Pertuan Agong declares that the Emergency (on Sarawak) is lifted, no other authority can announce the dissolution of the DUN (State Legislative Assembly).
“So we all have to wait for the Agong’s announcement,” she said in a statement yesterday, in response to the speculation about DUN Sarawak to be dissolved soon.
Soo, however, acknowledged that regardless of the timing, Aspirasi must be ready for any eventuality.
She said her party had announced that it would contest in Chinese-majority DUN areas including Padungan, Pending, Batu Lintang, Kota Sentosa, Pelawan, Bukit Assek, Dudong, Tanjong Batu and Pujut.
On other constituencies, including the predominantlyDayak areas, she said Aspirasi would announce its candidates either after the dissolution of DUN Sarawak or on the nomination day itself.
“Aspirasi is in electoral alliance with Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak Baru (PBDS Baru) and Sarawak Workers Party (SWP), eyeing for the maximum number of seats.
“Aspirasi will go for more than 20 seats.”
Adding on, Soo said Aspirasi was formed over 25 years ago.
She pointed out that the name change from State Reform Party (STAR) was meant to reflect the party’s present day ‘aspiration’ of determining its own political future so that ‘Sarawak would restore all that it had lost during the last 60 years of humiliation and exploitation, which made many parts of the state so impoverished today without basic amenities of clean water, electricity, healthcare and good schools for the majority population’.
“We are a grassroots political party. We are not tainted and no party member has ever taken any money in corrupt practices.
“We do not have tycoons or timber companies behind us; we are not beholden to anyone. Our boss is the ‘rakyat’ (people).
“The keystone of our party is self-determination through the referendum process, stamping out corruption and zero tolerance for poverty… that every Sarawakian shall be rich,” said Soo, who would contest in Padungan, her birthplace.
Soo also insisted that the Undi18 voters must not be denied of their chance to choose their government in the next state election.