No single party should dominate state seats: PRS president

KUCHING: The formation of Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) brings no different from Barisan Nasional (BN) if the coalition is being dominated by a single party, said Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) president Tan Sri Dr James Jemut Masing.
With the 12th State Election due in 2021 in mind, he said GPS was still in its incubator stage and there were still a lot of improvements that needed to be done.
"There should be no one party dominance, there should not be more than half of the state legislative assembly seats that belongs to a single party because it means that they can form the government alone.
"If it is being dominated by a single party than it serves no purpose," he said at a press conference after chairing PRS Supreme Council meeting here today.
PRS, is among four four former BN parties, including Parti Pesaka Bumiputra Bersatu (PBB), Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP) and Progressive Democratic Parry (PDP) which left the BN to form a new coalition known as GPS.
On June 13 Sarawak Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg announced that the four parties were leaving the BN after a partnership of 45 years following much deliberation and due consideration taking into account the country's current political development after the 14th General Election.
On another note Masing, who is also Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister, said the party still believed in the establishment of a single multi-racial party in Sarawak.
Masing said the results of the 14th General Election (GE14) also showed that communal based party was no longer accepted by Malaysians.
He said PRS was also requesting the state government to consider allocating a bigger annual budget to non-Muslims to enable them to build their places of worship.
Masing said the Sarawak government should consider allocating bigger annual budget to Unit for Other Religions (Unifor) so that Sarawakians of diverse religious beliefs could continue to practice their religion without feeling having been neglected.
"Sarawak is a multi-religious state so it is good that all religions are to be taken care," he said, adding that PRS Supreme Council members felt that there was an urgent need for the restructuring of state civil service to reflect the social fabric of Sarawak (Malay, Dayak and Chinese).
"Currently the recruitment of state civil service is not satisfactory, there is imbalance. Recruitments must be based on what you know and not who you know," he added. — Bernama