Sarawak Harapan says won't let PM candidate issue affect them

Sarawak Pakatan Harapan has pledged to stay united amid simmering tensions between national opposition leaders over who should be the coalition's prime minister candidate.

"The prime minister candidate issue shall not affect the relationship between the three parties. It is a matter of different opinions and means to achieve the same ultimate aim," they said in a joint statement.

It was signed by the Sarawak chiefs for DAP (Chong Chieng Jen) [above], PKR (Larry Sng) and Amanah (Abang Halil Abang Naili).

Harapan is currently at an impasse over who should be prime minister if they return to power.

DAP and Amanah have backed Dr Mahathir Mohamad to return for six months with Anwar Ibrahim as his deputy.

This was rejected by PKR which has insisted that their president be the candidate instead.

Meanwhile, Sarawak Harapan said they will only resume cooperation with the state Bersatu chapter once the party's leadership tussle is cleared up.

Mahathir is currently in a tussle with Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin for control over Bersatu 

The Sarawak Harapan statement came after a meeting yesterday regarding current matters and the upcoming state elections which are due by September next year.

The Sarawak state legislative assembly building

"Sarawak Harapan will face the GPS in the coming state elections as one.

"We are prepared to work with any credible political party which subscribes to the principles of transparency, good governance and justice for all.

"We will not work with any opportunist party or those 'one-election parties' as such parties have a high tendency of betraying the voters’ trust after winning some seats," they said.

They said a change of state government in Sarawak was needed to "clear the dirt accumulated over the past 57 years".

One major concern the state coalition had was on Sarawak's financial situation due to "wasteful spending" and the lack of transparency over bonds borrowed by the state government.

It said the billions being spent on projects was untenable and had plunged the state into debt.

"The uncertain part is how are we going to repay those debts? We do not want the repeat of 1MDB in Sarawak," they said. - Mkini