KUCHING: Stadium Perpaduan is the venue for the official launch of Gabungan Party Sarawak (GPS) today.
The guest-of-honour for the launch and chairman of the brand new coalition will be none other than Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg.
Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah, the man given the task of leading the GPS launch working committee, was satisfied with all the preparations and is anticipating nothing less than a “perfect show” after witnessing and participating in rehearsals at the stadium last night.
He commented that several rehearsals had been carried out prior to this, and the finer details have all been ironed out.
“This will be a historical event for the history books and will be witnessed by 10,000 people from all four components namely PBB (Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu Sarawak), PRS (Parti Rakyat Sarawak), SUPP (Sarawak United People’s Party) and PDP (Progressive Democratic Party).”
Datuk Alexander NantaLinggi, secretary-general of GPS and head of the secretariat for the event, explained that preparations for the event had started months ago with many meetings held among the components.
He further commented that there was tremendous enthusiasm shown by everyone, be it from the hundreds of volunteers or the leaders of all the components in GPS.
“As you can see, tonight the rehearsal is led by none other than Datuk Amar Douglas himself and this is the commitment being shown by all involved in the preparation process.”
He said the spirit in the party is good and there is a lot of cohesion and cooperation amongst the members, a fact he feels proud to share.
Alexander explained that in the planning stages, the working committee planned to cater for 6,000 people but due to the great interest and numerous requests from components, the actual number of people may exceed 10,000 people coming from throughout Sarawak.
He expressed concern about the potential overflow of participants and appealed to all who are coming to cooperate with their respective coordinators and the security personnel on site later today.
Participants and members should reach the venue early to secure parking.
Alexander revealed that this will not be the final event as GPS will be going down to the ground on a roadshow throughout Sarawak to give briefings and promote their new logo and branding in all 82 constituencies.
The roadshow will be an ongoing programme for the next two years and will be headed by the Chief Minister himself.
The launch will begin at 8pm with the arrival of the Chief Minister.
A flag procession will commence upon the arrival of the guest-of-honour, followed bya video presentation on GPS.
Leaders of all component parties will beinvited to give their speeches withDatuk SeriTiong King Sing (PDP)speaking first, followed by Datuk DrSimKuiHian(SUPP) and Tan Sri Dr James JemutMasing (PRS) after him.
Johari will deliver the final speech inhis capacity as chairman of GPS before the actual launching gimmick is revealed to mark the official launch of the party.
This will be followed by the singing of the official GPS song titled “GPS Utamakan Sarawak”. The event will end with a pledge-takingceremony lead by the Chief Minister.
