S’wak election: Independent candidates form coalition

PETALING JAYA: Several independent candidates in Sarawak have formed a coalition called Barisan Malaysia (BM) to jointly contest over 45 seats in the upcoming state election.

A news report by Borneo Post Online said that while the coalition is called Barisan Malaysia, the movement is collectively known as Pakatan Bebas.

They are expected to reveal their list of candidates in stages leading up to the election.

The report also quoted Affendi Jeman, proponent of Pakatan Bebas and BM as well as pro-tem chairman of the yet to be registered Parti Agenda Rakyat Bumiputera Sarawak (ARBS), as saying the coalition had identified around 15 independent candidates to contest in some of the targeted seats.

Affendi was also reported to have said that he may be contesting in the Pantai Damai constituency against Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Dr Abdul Rahman Junaidi.

“We have established Pakatan Bebas, an approach that will gather all interested independent candidates as well as create collaboration with non-governmental organisations and existing local political parties who are involved in the upcoming state polls,” he said at a press conference at the Merdeka Palace Hotel in Kuching yesterday.

When asked about the number of members and supporters it had nationwide, Affendi said that as the entities had yet to be registered, there was no official membership as yet.

“The numbers come in the form of people’s support and vested interests. We are confident that more will come to support this cause once Pakatan Bebas has gone public with its intention. We have our own manifesto, let the people decide if they want to support our objectives and struggles.”

He also rubbished the state BN leadership’s plea for another five years of service, saying the current government with their ‘self enriching’ leaders had been in power for over 50 years but had failed to bring sufficient development to the Bumiputera community.

Instead, the state government led by Chief Minister Adenan Satem had only succeeded in creating more negative issues there, Affendi claimed.

“The most evident is the comfort gap between the multiracial communities in Sarawak which only gets wider due to greed demonstrated by some BN Sarawak leaders that only prioritise ‘a certain race group’,” he said, adding that Opposition parties from the peninsular were not suitable either for Sarawak’s political landscape.

“Although these parties are established for quite some time in the state, their federal leaders have not shown promising progress to settle issues pertaining to the state because they do not understand the political culture here,” he said as quoted by the portal.

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