KUCHING, Oct 19 — Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) does not mind working with any coalition or party from peninsular Malaysia, as long as it is not the Pakatan Harapan (PH) or the Democratic Action Party (DAP), said Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah.

This was because the Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) vice president said when PH won the previous parliamentary election in 2018, they viewed GPS who were still known as the Sarawak Barisan Nasional as the opposition.

"We tried to extend them the olive branch (right after the 2018 election), but still they call us the opposition,” he told reporters when met today.

Another reason why GPS decided not to work with PH and DAP is that during the time when PH was still the federal government, GPS felt harassed as many of its projects were cancelled by the PH government, and GPS still remembers all that.

Abdul Karim was responding to questions from reporters who wanted to know whether GPS will be working with any coalition in the next parliamentary election.

In 2018, the PH coalition of four opposition parties secured a stunning victory in Malaysia’s general election at the time which ended over 60 years of uninterrupted rule by the Barisan Nasional (BN).

Following the defeat of BN in that election, the BN component parties from Sarawak had opted to leave BN to form GPS.

This was because the four parties — PBB, Parti Rakyat Sarawak , Sarawak United People’s Party and Progressive Democratic Party — remained as the state government in Sarawak but would be in the opposition at the federal level.

The main objective for the formation of GPS was to provide a platform for Sarawakians to be their voice in asking for more development from the then PH-led federal government.

However in February 2020, a development commonly dubbed the Sheraton Move, saw the fall of the PH government after 22 months in power.

Abdul Karim earlier officiated the inauguration of the Youth and Entrepreneurs Kitchen in conjunction with the 2022 Youth Day Celebration at the Dataran Perayaan here.

Also present were Youth, Sports and Entrepreneur Development Deputy Minister Ripin Lamat, the ministry’s permanent secretary Nancy Jolhi and Daro assemblyman Safiee Ahmad. — Borneo Post