GPS firm in its support of Muhyiddin amid speculations of another gov't change

Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) remains firm in its support of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, said Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) secretary-general Alexander Nanta Linggi.

Meanwhile, PBB supreme council member Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said the rumblings of another change in the federal government is merely “the madness of trying to assume leadership of the government”.

“As far as GPS is concerned, we are solidly behind Muhyiddin as prime minister, you can emphasise that,” Alexander told Malaysiakini when contacted.

Wan Junaidi also said Muhyiddin’s government is currently doing well in handling the Covid-19 pandemic as well as in its efforts to restart the economy following the movement control order (MCO).

“This is not the right time to disrupt the government… The rakyat may not be happy if such a thing were to happen.

“Politics should be put aside for now, and we should look into the Covid-19 pandemic and the economy,” he said to Malaysiakini.

Wan Junaidi said Muhyiddin should be allowed to stay on as prime minister until the next general election.

PBB, he said, is ready to face any changes in the next general election.

Alexander also shared a similar sentiment as Wan Junaidi, saying GPS wants to see a “stable government”.

“We see the present government is doing well in handling the Covid-19 crisis, all the more reason for us to give him (Muhyiddin) strong support and a strong mandate for the safety of the country,” he said.

Both PBB leaders also confirmed that there is a PBB supreme council meeting today at 3pm in Kuching but stressed that it is just a “normal” and “regular” meeting.

Alexander said though the meeting will be discussing the current political situation, it does not have any agenda on deciding between supporting former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad or Muhyiddin as far as he knows.

“Make it very clear, don’t insinuate that. We have no agenda on that (deciding between Mahathir and Muhyiddin).

“I do not know whether we are going to discuss that or not,” he said.

Alexander pointed out that it is not unusual for PBB to be discussing the current political scenario as the Sarawak state election is within a year.

“But if you talk about whether we discuss anything in specific, that one I cannot say because I don’t know,” he said.

Wan Junaidi also said he does not yet know the specific agenda of the meeting as it is usually given out at the start of the meeting.

Alexander also clarified that GPS is not a Perikatan Nasional (PN) member as PN is not a registered organisation yet.

“So how can we be a member of it in that sense? [...] But we participate at the federal level because we feel that we also can contribute to the federal government, especially for the sake of development in Sarawak and for Sarawakian interests.

“At the moment, PN is a coalition of parties, and we work together with PN,” he said.

The past few weeks have seen Pakatan Harapan leaders claim that they had garnered enough support, including from those in the government, to recapture Putrajaya from PN.

Since then, there had been speculation that GPS had switched sides.

PKR president Anwar Ibrahim then said on Wednesday that Harapan currently has 107 seats on their side.

Malaysia has a total of 222 parliamentary seats, and its first-past-the-post system requires any political entity to have a simple majority of at least 112 MPs to form a government. - Mkini