Chong addressing the crowd at the event. – Photo by Muhammad Rais Sanusi.
KUCHING: Sarawak Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman Chong Chieng Jen said tonight that Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) must be defeated in the next state polls to ensure that the ‘unholy coalition’ of Pas and Umno will not succeed.
He said the pact between PAS and Umno was the biggest threat faced by PH in the next general election, but they would not be able to win without support from GPS and particularly its backbone party, Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB).
“The third party behind them (PAS-Umno pact) is GPS’s PBB,” he declared at a PH dinner here, which was attended by the top federal leaders of its component parties.
He said he came to this conclusion about PBB’s part in the PAS-Umno alliance after seeing how PBB’s parliamentarians had worked together with their peers from the two parties to block the constitutional amendment to restore Sarawak’s position in Malaysia earlier this year.
Chong, who is also Sarawak DAP chairman, added that the coming state election be a government-to-government (G2G) fight between a national and state party, describing it as the ‘battle of the century’.
“We PH is the Federal government, GPS is the state government. Put simply, GPS is a small government and PH is big. Let’s fight. There is no fear,” he said, urging the people to realise that only through a national party could they expect real change in the state.
On PH’s track record so far, he said that the government had increased the country’s revenue by 13 per cent to RM105.4 billion in the first five months of this year compared to RM92.7 billion for the same period last year.
Similarly, it decreased government expenditure by three per cent from RM109.9 billion in the said period to RM106.6 billion, he said.
He said this success is something the people should be proud of after the change of government and despite inheriting a RM1 trillion debt from the previous government.
He is also happy to announce that the economic situation is not as bad as potrayed by certain quarters.
“Car sales for the first five months of this year increased by 12 per cent and motorbike increased by 18 per cent. This is sign of economic recovery.”
Present were PKR president Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim, PKR Sarawak chairman Baru Bian, Amanah president Mohamad Sabu, DAP Supreme Council member Lim Kit Siang, Bersatu deputy president Tan Sri Muhyddin Mohd Yassin and PKR vice-president cum Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin.