KUCHING: Dayak-based parties, particularly Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) and Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) should be duly recognised for their contribution to the Barisan Nasional (BN) victory in the last general election, says PRS president Tan Sri Dr James Masing yesterday.
Masing who is Land Development Minister and Baleh assemblyman repeated this call in the light of talks that Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) under the new leadership of Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai had requested for two full ministerial posts and at least two deputy minister post in the next BN cabinet reshuffle.
Masing said even though appointment of cabinet posts was the prerogative of the Prime Minister and BN Chairman Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, representation in the BN cabinet should correspond with each component party’s contribution of elected representatives .
“So the same is applicable to MCA if they reverse their decision and wish to participate in BN government,” he said.
“However each BN party in the coalition must be given ministerial allocations in accordance to their contribution in terms of elected representatives and not according to claimed membership,” he argued.
The bone of contention is that PRS and SPDP won all the seats they contested in the last parliamentary election while MCA, did not fare very well.
PRS won six out of six parliamentary seats while SPDP (four out four) and MCA won only seven out of 39 seats
SPDP president Tan Sri William Mawan Ikom could not be reached for comment.