PETALING JAYA: A Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu leader has urged Sarawak coalition partners not to “rock the boat” over election seat negotiations.
Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said the current practice should be maintained. If a constituency was a stronghold for a particular component party of the ruling coalition Gabungan Parti Sarawak, there was no need for another to vie for it.
“If we open it (for contest), there’s a high probability that we may not be able to control the situation where external parties, big ones, national ones, could also compete,” the Borneo Post quoted him as saying.
Karim was responding to recent comments by Progressive Democratic Party president Tiong King Sing that there were no such thing as legacy seats any more, as it was up to the constituents to choose who they want to represent them.
Karim said based on Tiong’s argument, PDP should be prepared to defend their seat against another GPS component party.
“If you (PDP) want it that way, then this means that you can contest in my area, and we also contest in your area. Because it is an open game,”
He said that the coalition would draw on its experience from previous seat negotiations to reach an amicable solution.
Karim said he stood firm behind the current system which had been in existence for many years.
“Why do we need to rock the boat? When we rock the boat, at the end of the day, if there’s division, it’s the people who lose. We don’t want a situation like that,” he said.
