KUCHING: Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) is analogous to a longboat skippered by Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg with the three component parties (Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu, Parti Rakyat Bersatu (PRS), Sarawak United People’s Party and Progressive Democratic Party) as the ‘jaga luan’ or lookouts.
In making this analogy, Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri James Jemut Masing, said in 2021 (next state election) GPS’ boat will navigate over Pelagus Rapids where we must not ‘kacau’ (disturb) the driver/skipper nor disturb the ‘jaga luan’.
To have proper appreciation of what he meant when he mentioned ‘Pelagus Rapids’, know that the infamous ‘Rapids of Death’ has caused the deaths of many travellers who travelled between Kapit and Belaga.
The rapids is about five kilometres long and there are at least seven dangerous sections which the locals called Lapoh, Sukat, Bidai, Tilan, Makup, Batu Nabau, Lungga/Mawang.
One of the most tragic events that happened there was in 1973 when a longboat carrying teachers and students from SMK Kapit hit some rocks and sank. Seventeen of the students died in that accident.
So with all of that in mind, Masing wanted all hands in the boat to paddle and must not ‘kacau’ each other.
“If we fail to paddle properly because we ‘kacau’ each other, there is a danger that the boat would capsize and all of us would lose everything,” he said at Rumah Robert Ngumbang, Nanga Sebatu in Kapit recently during the launch of GPS Zone 11 covering the state constituencies of Katibas, Bukit Goram, Pelagus and Baleh, plus two parliamentary constituencies, Hulu Rejang and Kapit.
As the event’s organising chairman, he reckoned that about 8,000 people were at the gathering.
“So united we stand, divided we fall. If GPS component parties are united, there is no way other parties can topple us,” he said.
He concluded by saying, “You touch one, you touch all! This must be maintained at all cost.”
