Minister firm in his decision, feels morally obliged to inform the chief minister of his move
Wong gestures during the news conference. — Photo by Tan Song Wei
KUCHING: Minister of International Trade and E-Commerce Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh says his decision to resign from the State Cabinet is final and will take effect after a meeting with the chief minister in the near future.
According to the Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) president, it is basic Asian value to pay a courtesy call on the chief minister before his resignation.
“I just want to clarify that when I said I’d like to seek the chief minister’s advice before I step down, it is not about asking the chief minister whether I should or should not resign.
“To me, it is a matter of courtesy that I should call on the chief minister before I resign because my appointment is the prerogative of the chief minister,” he told a packed press conference that lasted 45 minutes at Bangunan Baitulmakmur in Petra Jaya, here yesterday.
Wong, who is also Second Finance Minister, pointed out that Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg was the state leader who officially launched United People’s Party (UPP) which was later rebranded as PSB.
He recalled that Abang Johari launched UPP on Jan 11, 2015 and also the rebranded PSB on Dec 8 last year.
“Now that we have some political differences, it is only a matter of courtesy that I should inform him that I leave the Cabinet and where the party is going.”
Wong said he had made it clear during the party’s Annual Delegates Conference on Saturday that he no longer has the locus standi to remain in the Cabinet.
He said this is because leaders from PSB had been excluded from the latest councillorship and sooner rather than later, the party would not have representatives in the state statutory bodies or even community leadership.
“I’m alone in the Cabinet. I have the moral integrity to resign. I want PSB to be sufficiently broadened to reflect the state’s multi-racial composition.
“My resignation is definite. It’s a matter of courtesy to call on the chief minister. PSB has been so closely associated with the chief minister, who launched the party into being, into life,” he explained.
He said he would soon set up a meeting with Abang Johari to tender his resignation.
Asked if he would change his mind, if Abang Johari were to request him to remain in the Cabinet, he responded without hesitation: “I don’t think so.”
Wong believed that the chief minister would not want him to stay as a State Cabinet member given his (Abang Johari) recent comment, ‘You touch one, you touch all’ in reference to PSB’s recruitment of members of former GPS parties.
On the comment, the PSB president insisted that he did not see any wrong in the party taking in leaders who were either sacked or had resigned from their respective parties.
He said leaders and members whom PSB had taken in were partyless and PSB did so out of the good intention of preventing these partyless individuals from joining Pakatan Harapan (PH) and going against Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS).
“We want to rope them in, hoping to form a formidable group. But (Parti Rakyat Sarawak president Tan Sri Dr James) Masing said PSB was not being friendly to some component parties in GPS… so they retaliated,” he said.
Wong said elected representatives from PSB had been deprived of Minor Rural Project (MRP) and Rural Transformation Programme (RTP) funds worth millions of ringgit since March or April this year.
He said he had no idea why these funds were frozen as far as PSB elected representatives were concerned.
“We were all elected under previously Barisan Nasional and MRP is people’s money. If it’s frozen, I’d say it’s GPS government that does not want to give it to you.”
Earlier, Wong said he had been the Second Finance Minister for 15 years.
As such, he said he was ‘greatly concerned’ about Masing’s statement made in June last year that the RM31 billion state reserves should be used up before the next state election.
He said Masing went on to say that if the money was not used before the next state election, it would be used by the next government if GPS happened to lose power.
“I do not want money to be spent just like that,” said Wong, adding that Sarawak had ‘painstakingly built up the reserves’ since when the Yang di-Pertua Negeri Tun Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud was the chief minister.
Wong said it would be wasteful to use the reserves just like that, adding: “RM31 billion, mind you, is not a small sum.”