KUCHING, July 29 — Sarawak Pakatan Harapan (PH) has pledged to go all-out to defeat the ruling Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) in the next state election so it can initiate institutional reforms in the state administration.

Its chairman Chong Chieng Jen said the reforms would include the administration of the state and native customary rights lands and forest.

He said reforms in Sarawak can only happen through a coalition of national parties rather than one of local parties.

“Therefore, we must bring justice to Sarawak and also the nation,” he said at the Sarawak PH fundraising dinner here last night.

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“So this coming election is going to be the battle of a century for Sarawak between PH and GPS (Gabungan Parti Sarawak),” Chong, who is aslo Sarawak DAP chairman, said.

“The coming election will be government-to-government fight. We at PH are the federal government and GPS, the state government,” he said.

“Let us fight. There is no fear,” he said.

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Chong, who is also the deputy minister of domestic trade and consumer affairs, also accused GPS of being a third party in the “unholy alliance” between Umno and PAS.

“In Peninsular Malaysia, there is an unholy alliance between PAS and Umno. This combination forms a big threat to PH. In the next general election, they will not be able to win without the help of GPS,” he said.

He said the defeat of a Bill to amend the federal constitution that sought to restore the status of Sarawak and Sabah to their original position before 1976 was proof that Umno, PAS and GPS were working together.

“It is important that for the coming state election, we must defeat this third party component of unholy union of Pas and Umno,” he said.

Sarawak PKR chairman Baru Bian, in his speech, urged Sarawak PH component parties to come up with their election strategies in a systematic manner so they will not have to face many problems in the state election later.

“This time around I have high confidence that we can take over the state government from GPS because we have overall access to the media.

“When the Barisan Nasional was in power, we did not have access to the mainstream media to disseminate our information to the people, even though the informations which we wanted to disseminate were true and useful to the people,” he said.

Among those present at the dinner were PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Parti Amanah Negara president Mohammad Sabu.