KUALA LUMPUR, July 13 — Sarawak-based Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) and Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) today inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate, cementing a year-long discussion between both parties in the making.
The inking of the MoU between PDP — a member of the ruling Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) coalition — would also effectively mean the absence of any Opposition in the current Sarawak state assembly.
PSB president Datuk Seri Wong Soon Koh said the decision to pledge his support to PDP was driven by the intent to enable the federal government under Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and the state government under Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Openg to carry out their people-first initiatives.
“In Sarawak, the GPS state government being part of the federal unity government has also given their full support to Anwar.
“We PSB members, for greater solidarity, have set aside our differences and rally ourselves behind the Premier and Anwar to enable them to fulfill their vision,” he said in his speech during the MoU signing ceremony held at PARKROYAL Collection KL here.
Wong said the choice was 'obvious' for PSB, in that the party's pledge to fully support Anwar for the sake of national stability, solidarity and unity would enable the federal administration to carry out it's objectives under the 'Malaysia Madani' concept.
“Ladies and gentlemen, as many people have said, politics is the art of possibilities or impossibilities.
"What is seemingly impossible can become possible as you know as it turned out who can imagine that Umno could team up with rivals of Pakatan Harapan, particularly DAP, to form the federal unity government and our state GPS government has joined hands with the seemingly impossible partners like DAP and Umno in the federal government.
"All these as we all know have been done in the spirit of unity, solidarity and of course for political stability," he said.
PDP president Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing said both parties ultimately reached a consensus to support one another since both strived to see prosperity and political stability in the nation and Sarawak.
“We move forward for the sake of stability, unity and solidarity to strengthen the Sarawakian state government, to help them carry out more development for the betterment of the people,” he told reporters after the signing ceremony.
Echoing Wong, Tiong said the agreement was another step to ensuring political stability in both the state and country.
He pointed out that the MoU marked the start of the cooperation between both parties, with the possibility of a merger in the future.
“Will the merger happen? To me, step by step we will work together. Let our party members understand each other well and we create more platforms for our members to work together,” he said.
GPS is part of the national unity government led by Anwar with Tiong serving as the Tourism, Arts and Culture minister.
Besides GPS, PSB has four seats while DAP has two seats in the state assembly.
