Dennis Ngau
Pandi Suhaili
KUCHING: A Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) supreme council member has rubbished a news portal report saying its president has told Barisan Nasional (BN) acting chairman they are quitting the coalition.
When contacted via WhatsApp yesterday, Pandi Suhaili said he had checked with his colleagues in the supreme council, and immediately came back to confirm that Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg had never met Umno acting president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
“Abang Johari did not meet Ahmad Zahid in the last few days. I can confirm this as fake news,” he said, adding that the chief minister would normally discuss such big decision with other Sarawak BN component parties.
“The chief minister has announced that they will discuss the issue with other component parties – SUPP, PRS and PDP. There is no decision yet,” he said.
Pandi believed this could be the work of some Peninsular Malaysia groups who wanted to create distrust and disunity among BN component parties in Sarawak. When asked what transpired during the last supreme council meeting, Pandi said the chief minister had briefed the media soon after the meeting.
“The meeting discussed, among others, PBB direction and the idea of forming a new coalition front for Sarawak-based parties.”
PBB information chief Datuk Idris Buang, when contacted for his comment on the same subject, meanwhile, only said: “It is just a rumour”.
Pandi and Idris were asked to comment on a news report saying that Sarawak’s backbone party (PBB) is going to withdraw from Barisan Nasional despite an 11th-hour plea by BN acting chief Ahmad Zahid.
The portal said the PBB move would shave 13 seats from the 79 that BN won on May 9, further weakening the coalition that had ruled the country for six decades.
The withdrawal of PBB, which is BN’s second-largest component, and possibly other Sarawak parties from the (BN) coalition could result in an exodus of Umno/BN MPs.
Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) has already confirmed that they have quit BN. An attempt to contact the chief minister for his comment received no response yet at press time.
Another PBB supreme council member and Telang Usan assemblyman Dennis Ngau also denied speculation that PBB would pull out of BN. He said so far there was no meeting or any indication that PBB would pull out of BN.
“I don’t think this is true because the direction of PBB can only be decided by the supreme council,” he said when contacted yesterday following a report by Malaysian Insight that PBB would withdraw from BN.
“Our party president Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg has not discussed the issue,” Dennis said.
To support his statement, Dennis contacted the chief minister’s private secretary yesterday, who confirmed there was no such meeting between Abang Johari and BN acting head Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
PBB has 13 parliamentary seats. It is also the second largest block within the BN family.
A check with PBB headquarters in Kuching by a PBB branch chief here to verify whether the news was true or not, a (HQ) spokesman said they were waiting for the chief minister to make an official announcement.