DAP should leave Sarawak if serious about autonomy, REFORM says

KUCHING - The DAP should pull out of Sarawak if it truly believes in autonomy for the state, Sarawak Reform Party (REFORM) said today.

“If the DAP really believes in autonomy for Sarawak, then it should pull itself out of Sarawak and let the Sarawak parties fight the local Barisan Nasional (BN) in future elections,” REFORM president Lina Soo said.

“We, therefore, ask DAP to gracefully pull out of Sarawak if it truly believes autonomy for Sarawak, not just empty talk from someone who is not a Sarawakian,” she said, adding that only Sarawak-based parties are in the best position to talk about autonomy for Sarawak.

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said yesterday that Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem and Sarawakian political parties should pull out of BN if the ruling coalition fails to meet a deadline to accede to the state’s demand for autonomy.

Soo told Malay Mail Online that Lim is in no position to talk about the autonomy as DAP, which is a peninsula-based party, is an outsider.

Meanwhile, PBB supreme council member Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said Lim is just being arrogant in asking the state BN to pull out of the federal government.

“Yes, I agree that he is very arrogant,” the assistant minister for housing and urban wellbeing said when asked by Malay Mail Online.

However, Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS Baru) president Cobbold John Lusoi said his party has all along been telling Adenan to review the state BN’s solid support to the federal government over the many unfulfilled promises to give Sarawak’s rights back and to allocate more development funds.

“The promises were repeatedly during the campaign in the last state elections, but so far those promises have remained promises, until Adenan became sick and tired of asking Putrajaya,” Lusoi said.

He claimed that the federal Budget 2017 sidelined Sarawak in terms of allocations for development and infrastructure.

“While the peninsula talks about billions in term of allocations, Sarawak talks about millions,” he said, referring to the RM55 billion allocation for the implementation of the new East Coast Rail Line project connecting Kiang Valley to the East Coast.