KUCHING: Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) on Saturday (Nov 27) claimed that the Democratic Action Party (DAP) had refused to discuss seats openly and transparently with its Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition partners.
The State PKR Leadership Council (MPN) said they had tried to meet with the State DAP’s top leadership for many months to discuss the matter but to no avail.
“We had explained that owing to the departure of the former State PKR chairman, Larry Sng from our party in February 2021, any personal agreement made by him with DAP Sarawak is null and void as this was done independently without the knowledge and agreed consent from our grassroots leaders in Sarawak.
“Since early 2020, we identified a strong potential Dayak candidate for the state seat of Kemena, who has done extensive community outreach and welfare support throughout Kemena during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown and enjoys impressive grassroots support from the local Iban community.
“Kemena was originally a PKR seat but was on loan to DAP in the 2016 election which they then went on to lose. With the strength of our present candidate we therefore requested the return of our Kemena seat to the PKR fold in order that we may contest in this Dayak majority seat,” it added.
It added that it had presented its candidate’s key performance index (KPI) and dossier to the PH Sarawak chairman Chong Chien Jen but he refused to even read or acknowledge it.
“What was even more puzzling was that the PH Chairman refused to tell us who he had in mind as a DAP candidate in Kemena.
“To the best of our knowledge there has been no DAP-led grassroots outreach in Kemena for over three years.
“Hence, we requested DAP Sarawak to discuss their candidates with the State PKR in order to work on a winning formula together but the state DAP again refused to negotiate,” it said, adding that DAP Sarawak continued to demand all three seats (Piasau, Senadin, and Pujut) despite their lack of performance and losses in the 2016 state election.
“With this we ask DAP Sarawak, where is the partnership and consensus building? Coalition consensus building must be done respectfully, openly and transparently.
“Building a strong opposition in Sarawak that can effectively bring about reform and change is not just about dominating Chinese majority seats in the towns.
“The opposition coalition in Sarawak needs to be effectively led by a team of multiracial leaders, with strong grassroots support, in order to reach out to the people of Sarawak’s rural heartland,” it stressed.
