KUCHING: The Perikatan Nasional government should appoint a senior Sarawak leader as a deputy prime minister to ensure checks and balances on policies.
Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) Sarawak information chief, Zharudin Narudin, said this suggestion should be considered by Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
“As we know, the current number of parliamentary seats is not even a third of the national total.
“This puts Sarawak in a difficult position especially in its efforts to uphold its rights under the Federal Constitution and Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).
“Therefore, appointing a Sarawakian deputy prime minister must be considered by Muhyiddin as part of a new consensus in Perikatan Nasional. The same is also applicable to Sabah,” he told New Sarawak Tribune.
He then openly invited Muhyiddin to visit Sarawak claiming that the premier’s mandate was made adequate through GPS’ kingmaker role by providing the numbers to form the new government.
“The new government which is predominantly bumiputera would defend all races and religions and will not promote any particular sentiment just to survive politically.
“The spirit of federalism had long been extinguished and weakened by the centralisation of political power until the ‘voice’ of the state that formed the federation was submerged.
“Thus, the new government should take care of this country by taking lessons from the mistakes made by previous administration,” he said.
