KUCHING: Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) Stakan branch chairman Sim Kiang Chiok wonders how many more U-turns and broken promises Sarawak Democratic Action Party (DAP) are going to make.
He said that the latest broken promise was that after ruling for two years, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad would step down for Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, which was due in May.
“But last night’s (February 21) announcement by the Pakatan Harapan (PH) presidential council said that Dr Mahathir will stay on after the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Summit in November, and no exact date was fixed.
“How can we trust what this PH federal government has said when they have broken so many promises on so many occasions already?” he questioned.
He said that DAP had promised voters that after two years, Anwar will take over Mahathir’s post.
“But it seems that DAP is toothless, shameless, and has no integrity to the voters.”
Sim said they had 42 Parliamentary MPs, being the second largest party in the PH coalition of about 125 MPs, and they had shown the people that they did not dare to offend Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu), which is headed by Dr Mahathir and had fewer elected MPs in PH.
“The PH government is being rejected by people as seen in the by-elections at Tanjung Piai, Semenyih, and recently in Kimanis — their performance is not desired by the people due to their many U-turns and broken promises,” he said.
He added that the recently announced Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 3.6 per cent for the fourth quarter of last year — the lowest growth since 2009 — also showed that the country’s economy was being handled unsatisfactorily.
“Our Employees Provident Fund (EPF) dividend for last year was lowered from 6.15 per cent to 5.45 per cent and this reflects poorly on the PH government,” he said.
Sim called for Sarawak DAP to keep their promise to change the prime minister after two years to salvage whatever credibility they had left, after their non-fulfilment of returning 20 per cent oil and gas royalties and 50 per cent tax collected in Sarawak to the state, allocating 30 per cent of development fund in the annual budget to Sarawak, and the matter of Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) recognition.
“Maybe they should even be bold enough to leave the PH coalition for failing so badly and betraying their voters.
“Please stop insulting the voters’ intelligence by taking them as fools and taking them for granted, as they will do the right thing come the time when the power is back in their hands,” he said.
He told them not to be surprised that this PH government will be changed and taught a lesson by the voters.
“PH is consistently inconsistent and have lost all their credibility,” said Sim.