Choose to be understanding during this critical time, says DAP’s Ling

MIRI: Pakatan Harapan (PH) Sarawak secretary Alan Ling assures its members and supporters of the Prime Minister’s wisdom in forming his ‘functionable’ cabinet to sail the country through this critical time.

Speaking to The Borneo Post, he appealed for all quarters to be patient and understanding with Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s Cabinet selection.

“Under such constraints, I believe the Prime Minister has done his best in ensuring that the Cabinet can function for the five-year mandate,” he said.

Adding on, Ling said PH had fought the 15th General Election as a team and could easily form a purely PH-led government if it had obtained a simple majority.

The voters, he added, had decided otherwise, thus resulting in the birth of a unity government.

“People must accept that this is a unity government, not a PH government per se, and there is no way to please everybody.

“As the saying goes, you need extraordinary means during extraordinary times, and that is why the Prime Minister is holding the finance ministry portfolio to urgently restore economic confidence among local and foreign investors who were abandoning Malaysia due to hanky-panky and incompetency,” he pointed out.

Stability, Ling stressed, comes first while reforms can be implemented gradually after tackling more urgent issues like improving economic conditions.

Ling, who is also DAP Sarawak secretary, admitted that he and the grassroots had initially felt disappointed as none of the DAP representatives from Sarawak were included in the cabinet as full minister.

However, he was optimistic that the Prime Minister would take into consideration taking in PH MPs or Senators from Sarawak for the deputy ministerial posts.

“The main aim is for Anwar to become Prime Minister and for DAP to be in the government – which are equally important to influence and execute policies to benefit the people directly.

“We have the people and country’s interest above all, and this is the noble struggle of DAP,” he said, adding that DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke on Saturday had also expressed DAP’s unconditional support to Anwar.

Loke, who was appointed Transport Minister in the new Cabinet, pledged that the party was willing to sacrifice itself if it posed as a ‘stumbling block’ to the formation of an Anwar-led unity government.

Ling represented PH Sarawak to attend the swearing-in ceremony of four Senators at the Dewan Negara on Saturday, of which Pakatan Harapan secretary-general Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail was appointed to lead the Home Ministry.