BARAM, July 4 — Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) has yet to decide on Barisan Nasional chairman Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s appeal for it to help its candidates in the six state elections in Peninsular Malaysia, said Tan Sri Abang Johari Openg.
The GPS chairman was asked if the coalition would answer the appeal from Ahmad Zahid, who is also the deputy prime minister.
“I will discuss (Ahmad Zahid’s appeal) with the leaders of the GPS component parties first,” he told reporters after the opening of the community-based Sedidik kindergarten in Long Leng, a Penan settlement in the deep interior of Baram.
In his speech at an event organised by Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) on July 2, Ahmad Zahid expressed hope that leaders of GPS would help campaign for the BN candidates.
He said he wanted the agenda of political stability in Sarawak to be an example to be adopted by BN machinery during the campaign.
He added he had discussed with GPS secretary-general Datuk Alexander Nanta LInggi to bring GPS leaders to assist in the BN campaign.
Ahmad Zahid, who is also Umno president, hoped that Abang Johari who personally select the GPS leaders who would be sent to help.
He said he was confident the experience of the state election in Sarawak would be useful to BN to adopt in the six states.
He cited as an example the leadership of Abang Johari in treating all parties well in Sarawak, should be followed in the peninsula, and not to play up issues of differences including religious issues which could result in slanders and cause uneasiness among people.
The six states that will hold their elections this year are the PAS-led Kelantan, Kedah and Terengganu and the Pakatan Harapan-held Selangor, Penang and Negeri Sembilan.
