Cabinet posts: Dayaks should be grateful to PM

Instead of criticising the PM, PRS leaders should be grateful to Najib and accept their cabinet appointments, says SWP.

KUCHING: The Sarawak Workers Party (SWP) said today that the Dayak community should be grateful to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak for appointing four full ministers from the community in his new cabinet.

Contrary to the unhappiness and disappointment expressed by Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) leaders that Najib was sidelining the Dayaks of Sarawak, SWP supreme council member Munan John Andrew said the prime minister has been very fair to the Dayaks.

“In fact, I think he has also been very generous with the cabinet quota for the Dayak community,” he said in a statement here today.

“The Dayak population is only about 700,000 and we have four full ministers from the community – Douglas Uggah, Richard Riot, Joseph Entulu and Idris Jala.

“There are also three deputy ministers from the Dayak community – Alex Linggi, James Dawos and Joseph Salang (photo).

“Compare this representation to the four million Indian population in the country with only two ministers. Now, should PRS be whining and complaining?” Munan asked.

Munan said that PRS leaders should bear in mind that without BN, they are nothing.

“Seriously, what is PRS without BN? They should stop bragging about their successes at the elections.

Instead of criticising the PM, they should be grateful to Najib and accept their cabinet appointments.

Munan was responding to a FMT report quoting PRS veep Joseph Salang as saying that the party’s supreme council took a firm stand on the cabinet posts because they were tired of “begging” and being treated like “flower arrangements”

Said Salang: “Najib offered us only two deputy ministers…Only after the president (James Masing) protested and some begging, only then the Prime Minister agreed for (Joseph) Entulu to be made a full minister in the Prime Minister’s Department

“Is that the way to treat PRS which has six seats, while a certain party which delivered only one seat is given a full minister?

“We have to come out and make our stand for it. The prime minister should be smart enough and well-advised to know what the Dayaks need and where the Dayaks can fit in.

“He should have been well-advised to accommodate the Dayaks and not to see that they are part of a flower arrangement,” Salang had said.

Meanwhile, the Sarawak Progressive  Democratic Party (SPDP) has also asked the prime minister to give the party one full minister and two deputy minister’s posts because it has four MPs.

The party said that a petition signed by its 40 branches will be submitted to Najib to support the requests.