KUCHING: Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) deputy president Datuk Joseph Entulu Belaun says Sarawak Barisan Nasional (BN) has a fighting chance to win all the 31 parliamentary seats in the upcoming 14th General Election (GE14).
He said his optimism is based on intelligence gathered by the state BN component parties.
“But to get 29 seats out of 31 parliamentary seats is realistic for the state BN in the coming GE14 which could be held anytime from now,” Entulu told The Borneo Post here yesterday.
Entulu, who is also Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department and Selangau MP, said preparations for the coming GE14 was one of the issues in the agenda of the BN retreat held at a government training institute at Janda Baik, Pahang over last weekend. Present at the retreat were 300 BN leaders including all the presidents of the 13 BN component parties nationwide.
He said a big win for state BN would strengthen the standing for Sarawak in negotiating the devolution of power with the Federal Government and have a strong bearing on the political balance in the country.
“By this we mean that our various initiatives such as using English as a medium of instruction in school besides Bahasa Melayu; the recognition of Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) and the religious freedom that we have been practising in Sarawak would be more understood by the other states,” he said.
However, Entulu refused to divulge the details of the other issues in the agenda but merely said that it was a time for the entire BN family to evaluate their strength and weaknesses.
State BN and PBB Youth chief Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof concurred with Entulu that BN could win more than the 25 seats it won in GE13.
The Petra Jaya MP assured that PBB would assist its weaker BN partners in the state in the election.
“PBB is the backbone of the state BN and it is our duty to assist other state component parties,”
On his Petra Jaya seat, Fadillah who is also the Works Minister said even though it is a BN stronghold, he would not take things for granted.
“As for the candidate for Petra Jaya, we will leave it to top BN leadership especially Chief Minister (Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg) and Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak) to decide because I cannot vouch for myself.
“If they deem that my service is still needed, then I am most willing to continue to serve,” he said.
Fadillah revealed that for the next five years, Petra Jaya would embark on three major projects, namely to continue improving infrastructure development especially on roads and public transport, drainage and irrigation and education.
“Our main challenge is to tackle the youth so that they can focus on technical education for greater employability,” said Fadillah.
SUPP president Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian said although he felt very much encouraged to hear the comments of Entulu, he was realistic enough to say that parliamentary election was unlike the last state election where the party managed to wrest back some Chinese-majority seats from the opposition.
“The bottom-line is, we will give chance to the young leaders to rejuvenate and transform the party. And included in our proposed name list would be some women potential candidates whom we think can create an impact.”
On the other hand, UPP general-secretary George Lo said his party hopes to contest in three seats in the upcoming general election.
He named Sibu and Lanang but refused to name the third seat that the party is interested in.
“We are confident to deliver all the seats allocated to us. And we will not ask for seats we are not confident to deliver,” said Lo.
He said the results of the last state election showed that in the areas where UPP contested, there was a swing in the support of the Chinese voters to the party.
“We are confident to convert or translate the swing into victory for BN in the upcoming general election,” said Lo.
Lo argued that SUPP should give way to UPP based on realistic factors based on the fact that UPP is strong in certain areas.
“There are areas that we are stronger. SUPP should give way for us. Similarly, there are areas that SUPP are stronger and in those areas, we are most willing to give in. Furthermore, SUPP should put BN interest first instead of its own interest to win maximum number of seats,” said Lo.
He also pointed out that it was pointless for a party to contest in any seat which it has little chance of winning.
Meanwhile, PRS president Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Jemut Masing said overall, BN is looking at its strength nationwide where it is able to defend its present seats and should therefore be realistic enough to admit that some states such as Selangor, Penang and Kelantan are very difficult for BN to win.
“But we are very sure that BN can still continue to administer the country as BN will win enough seats to do so,” said Masing.
In the GE13 held in 2013, state BN won 25 parliamentary seats – 14 by PBB; six by PRS; four by SPDP and the remaining by SUPP.