You deserve better than dirty Malayan politics, activist tells Sarawak reps

A Sarawak activist has urged PKR elected representatives and leaders from the state to ditch the party, saying they “deserve better” than to be dragged into its internal power play.

Francis Paul Siah, the founding chairman of Movement for Change Sarawak, said he had many “good friends” in Sarawak PKR who would be affected by the ongoing strife.

“What is happening in PKR’s Julau division is yet another black mark on the PKR election,” he told FMT. “It is getting messier.

“It’s all about greed and power, who wants to be the so-called 9th prime minister after Anwar Ibrahim,” he said, referring to the contest for the PKR deputy presidency between incumbent Mohamed Azmin Ali and vice-president Rafizi Ramli.

He was responding to reports that Sarawak PKR information chief Vernon Kedit had lodged a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on possible dubious registrations of Julau PKR members.

This followed Kedit’s statutory declaration (SD) on the matter, after the Julau PKR branch membership was reported to have surged from 603 on June 26 to 13,000 a day later.

Kedit’s SD was however questioned by Julau MP Larry Sng.

Siah, a veteran political observer, said he believed many Malaysians were tired of PKR’s internal squabbles as there were bigger issues at hand.

He voiced regret that the conflict appeared to have spread to Sarawak PKR as well.

“Larry and his father Sng Chee Hua are big names in Sarawak politics. Now that Larry is in PKR, he and his father won’t want to play second fiddle to Sarawak PKR leaders. They’ll want to be at the top of the pyramid,” he said, adding that there was nothing wrong with this.

“In politics, there’s nothing wrong with being ambitions. Who doesn’t want to be at the top? The same thing is happening at the national level in PKR.”

He said however Kedit and the others who had asked MACC to investigate the possibility of dubious voters were fighting a “lost cause”.

“The question they should ask is: who gave Larry a free pass to win the Julau seat in the 14th general election? PKR stayed out of the battle for Julau.

“My advice to my friends in PKR is this: don’t get involved in dirty ‘Malayan’ politics. Ditch PKR and join another Pakatan Harapan component in Sarawak, or form a new Sarawak-based party aligned to PH.”

He said it would be more productive for Sarawak PKR reps and leaders to struggle for the state and its people than for those who “only want to grab power”. - Robin Augustin