Karim: Full minister posts GPS’ reward for bringing political stability to nation

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KUCHING: The four full minister posts, including one designated as Senior Minister, is Gabungan Parti Sarawak’s (GPS) reward for having helped brought political stability to the country, says Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah.

The Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) vice-president however pointed out that GPS never set any terms and conditions on cabinet appointments when it decided to back Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as prime minister, even though the state coalition’s support was key to the formation of the new federal government.

“We left it to Muhyiddin to choose (cabinet appointments) and I believe that he is appreciative of what Sarawak has done and appointed nine MPs from GPS to be in his cabinet.

“You don’t see MPs in GPS jumping here and there. We have been very focused. The reason why we gave our support to Muhyiddin was because we wanted to see the political crisis in the country come to an end.

“We believe there must be political stability in our country to strengthen our economy,” he told a press conference here yesterday.

Abdul Karim, who is state Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister, added he believes GPS’ decision to support the prime minister was a “very good move” as it brought back the people’s confidence in the government.

In addition, he said the people have been boosted by Muhyiddin’s decision to exclude those facing criminal charges in court from his cabinet – a move he said he fully supported.

“Overall, the cabinet lineup also sees some interesting backgrounds – there is a mufti, which is very good and which we have never seen before. We also have a bank chief executive officer who was appointed as Minister of Finance,” he said.