PSB switch is to prevent extremists taking over, says Baru Bian

 

Sarawak opposition leader Wong Soon Koh (right), who is PSB president with his PDP counterpart Tiong King Sing signing an electoral agreement on Thursday.

PETALING JAYA: The need to prevent “political extremists” from taking over the country prompted opposition Parti Sarawak Bersatu’s recent decision to support the federal and state governments, said PSB secretary-general Baru Bian.

Baru expressed concern about former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s recent claim that multiracialism in Malaysia is unconstitutional, as well as other instances of “intensifying politicising” of race, religion and royalty.

Stressing that it is common knowledge that Malaysia is a federation of Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak as equal partners, Baru said Sarawakians would never have agreed to the federation if the idea was to become a federation of ‘Tanah Melayu’.

“We cannot allow political extremists to take over the administration of this beloved country Malaysia,” he said in a statement today.

Baru Bian.

On Thursday, PSB president Wong Soon Koh, who is state opposition leader, announced the party’s support of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Sarawak premier Abang Johari Openg “in the spirit of unity”.

The party entered into an alliance with the Progressive Democratic Party, led by Tiong King Sing, the federal minister of tourism. PDP is a member of the ruling Sarawak coalition GPS.

Baru said “there is reason for us to ensure that this unity government prevails”, as Mahathir, Perikatan Nasional, PAS, and some Umno leaders had been “desperately making increasingly incendiary and divisive statements for political survival”.

PSB contested against GPS in the 2021 Sarawak elections and won four of the 82 state assembly seats. It currently has three seats after Batu Lintang assemblyman See Chee How left the party last year.

With Sarawak DAP only winning two seats in the state polls, this made PSB the biggest opposition party in the state assembly. - FMT