DAP refuses to budge on seat negotiation with PKR

0


KUCHING: Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR)’s hopes of contesting in more Chinese dominated urban areas were dashed after DAP refused to concede its claim on Batu Kawah and Dudong.

This has led to PKR being left with one confirmed seat as far as urban seats are concerned.

The seat is Padungan, which was won by Dominique Ng in 2006.

The party’s national information chief Tian Chua yesterday confirmed that the party would not put up a candidate in Batu Kawah.

The withdrawal means fellow opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP) party will contest there.

This will unlikely go well with state PKR which had proposed to put its Stampin division chief See Chee How, a lawyer, in that seat which has 50 per cent Chinese majority. The negotiation between PKR and DAP on the allocation of Chinese majority seats failed as DAP was not willing to let go of Batu Kawah.

“DAP has Batu Kawah now and we (PKR) are willing to make a sacrifice out of it,” Tian Chia told a press conference yesterday.

In the 2006 state election, PKR candidate Wong Huan Yu lost to incumbent Tan Joo Phoi of Barisan Nasional (BN) by 4,180 votes.

The status of another seat eyed by PKR – Senadin – is still very much in limbo. Senadin contituency, according to Tian Chua, is now under the watchful eyes of PAS.

“As it stands, Senadin is facing a rather insistent claims from PAS.

“In case the leadership concedes to PAS, PKR will be left with one Chinese seat in the urban areas (Padungan),” he added.

Tian Chua said in 2006, PKR stood in four “Chinese majority seats of Piasau, Senadin, Batu Kawah and Padungan and this year PKR is willing to negotiate for slight adjustment.

“Since last year, we had also recommended DAP to expand outside Chinese concentrated urban areas and we were willing to cooperate to develop support for DAP in indigenous areas so that DAP could take a bigger share of non-Chinese seats, and truly project itself to be a multiracial party”.

He pointed out that the minimum presence of PKR in three urban seats located in Miri, Sibu and Kuching was also not accepted by DAP, revealing that while PKR was willing to offer more seats outside urban areas, DAP seemed to be “not interested”.

Such “non-alliance agreement” by DAP, he said, would only reinforce the perception that DAP is merely a duplication of MCA or SUPP.

With the negotiation coming to an end, both PKR and DAP are now seeking the wisdom of their federal leadership to sort out the acrimonious impasse.

PKR is now knocking on Sarawak National Party (SNAP)’s door in its hope to form an alliance but sources said various attempts to contact them on finalisation of seats allocation had not been fruitful.

“The door of negotiation remains open and we hope a common formula of cooperation with SNAP can be worked out before the eve of nomination.”