No comment on opposition’s disagreement over seats – Abg Jo

KUCHING: Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg has refused to comment on the disagreement over seats allocation among opposition political parties.

He remarked that he had already foreseen that the opposition would have a challenging task on their hands when the 12th State Election was called.

“This is their problem (seat allocation) and I do not like to get involved in that. However, we can see that even before nomination date, disagreements have already surfaced among the opposition parties,” he said.

He said this when asked to comment on the matter after launching the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) election machinery at the Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) headquarters, Petra Jaya here Sunday night.

Abang Johari said even if the opposition managed to form the state government after the election, the government would not be stable since there were still disagreements between them.

“I don’t know what happened between the opposition parties in the first place but I am of the opinion that the opposition will face a daunting task in this state election, including political parties from the state. We can evaluate the record of their political leaders ourselves,” said the GPS chairman.

Recently, a public feud occurred between Democratic Action Party (DAP) Sarawak and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Sarawak over seat allocation for the upcoming polls.

In a statement last Friday, PKR Sarawak publicly accused their political ally for refusing to engage in negotiations over seat distribution in the election.

PKR Sarawak said that they had tried to meet with the top leadership of DAP Sarawak for many months over the matter but to no avail.

It further said the agreement over seat allocation that had been reached between thenchairman Larry Sng and DAP Sarawak was now ‘null and void’ as Sng has since left the party.

PKR Sarawak also said the agreement had been done independently without the knowledge and agreed consent from PKR grassroots leaders in the state, and that they had already identified strong potential candidates for some of the seats concerned.

DAP Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen then hit back at PKR the next day, calling on PKR to focus on winning the 47 seats that had been allocated to them instead of ‘grabbing’ seats from other Pakatan Harapan component parties.

Chong said an agreement on seat allocation had been signed on Jan 2 this year between DAP, PKR and Amanah, where other PKR council members were also present during the signing of the agreement.

“On that day, Larry Sng was signing on behalf of the PKR state committee, many of whom were also present. That was the decision of the PKR state committee as a whole, not just Larry Sng’s alone.

“Just because Larry has subsequently left the party, it doesn’t mean that the whole state committee’s previous decision is null and void and has to be revisited,” said Chong.

He said the change of an office bearer does not affect the validity of the agreement entered between parties while pointing out that DAP had also given up some seats to reach the agreement on Jan 2.