KOTA KINABALU: Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS) Youth members want Barisan Nasional to go solo in the coming 15th General Election (GE15).
PBRS Youth exco chief Edwin Laimin (pic) said nearly all the party's division leaders and grassroots supporters were in favour of this and questioned the need for cooperation between Barisan – of which the party is a component party – and Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS).
He said the grassroots and leaders still felt the "betrayal" by Bersatu, a principal member of GRS, in GE14 in 2018.
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“We fully support the suggestion by PBRS president Tan Sri Joseph Kurup for Barisan to go into GE15 on its own,” he said.
Laimin said continuing to work with GRS would make it difficult for Barisan and PBRS to get more seats to contest in GE15.
This is because they will have to abide by a seat-sharing formula, which also meant PBRS would not get to contest as many seats as it wanted.
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“PBRS only has one parliamentary seat now (Pensiangan),” he said.
Laimin said any cooperation in GE15 would only benefit Perikatan Nasional, and not Barisan.
“So what is the need for Barisan to work with GRS? Is Barisan only riding on GRS’ name?” he asked.
Recently, Bersatu president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had said that GRS’ victory can be viewed as a win for the party because the coalition is part of Perikatan Nasional.
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GRS is made up of SAPP, Bersatu, Sabah STAR, PBS and Usno; only SAPP, Bersatu and Sabah STAR are members of Perikatan at the national level.
“So this means a GRS victory will only benefit Perikatan and not Barisan,” Laimin said in response to Muhyiddin’s statement.
