Sarawak DAP, PKR continue spat over seats

Sarawak DAP and PKR leaders are hitting out at each other over ongoing negotiation on seat allocations which have turned sour following announcement of candidates ahead of an agreement among Pakatan Harapan. Instead of settling the overlapping claims among the state leaders, Sarawak DAP chairman Chong Chieng Jen said he would meet up with PKR's national leaders on Friday over the issue. In a statement today, Chong said PKR was not being sincere as its national leaders had announced its candidates for areas which are still under negotiation. "It is not a show of sincerity on the part of PKR to negotiate on seat allocations on the one hand and at the same time having its national chairman and leaders making announcement of the party's candidates on those contentious seats," he said. Chong added that among the 22 PKR candidates announced by PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail last month, at least seven seats are still subject to negotiation. "Sarawak DAP will keep quiet if such candidate announcements were made by some local PKR branch leaders who are too eager to contest, but when such announcement is made by the national chairperson of PKR, it represents the stand of the whole PKR. "Since Wan Azizah has already announced the PKR candidates in that contentious areas, what is there for negotiation over those areas? "It is an announcement by PKR's number one person.  It has to be the final decision of PKR, unless PKR is now saying that Wan Azizah's announcement of candidate is not final?," Chong asked. Earlier today, Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian had hit out at the state DAP for its open attacks on his party. Baru was referring to Betong and Sri Aman DAP branches, which had challenged the recent statement made by PKR deputy president Dr Xavier Jayakumar that they (PKR) would wrestle with DAP to contest in Senadin state constituency. DAP had said that elected representatives from PKR were always missing the Parliament sittings and PKR only did a "touch-and-go" service. DAP also said PKR always thought that the Dayaks accepted them but they never understood that the community were reluctantly doing so in previous elections because DAP had not gotten into the rural areas. "These irrational statements by his members are detrimental to the image of the opposition in the eyes of the public and I am concerned that they may reflect negatively on his role as leader of the party," said the Sarawak PKR chief in a statement. Baru labelled the DAP attacks as counter-productive, which would only place the opposition coalition on a platter as fodder for the BN parties. In replying to Baru's accusation, Chong said that while some of the DAP branch leaders may be too harsh on their words about the seat negotiation between the two parties, he believed the PKR national leaders should also control their urge to repeatedly announcing their candidates whenever they come to Sarawak. "For the PKR national leaders, there are more issues to talk about when they are in Sarawak than PKR's candidate announcement," Chong added. – February 17, 2016.]]>