KUCHING: More than a dozen leaders of the Sarawak youth organisation Saberkas are slated to be Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) candidates in the forthcoming state election, says its president Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah.
The GPS information chief said the state ruling coalition led by his party Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) was always on the lookout for future leaders among the multi-ethnic youth group.
“They (GPS) will definitely get in touch (with Saberkas). I wouldn’t be surprised if this time the figure will be in double digits," Abdul Karim told reporters after chairing the 57,000-member Saberkas’s 61st annual general meeting on Thursday (Oct 22).
Abdul Karim, who is also Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Minister, said that while GPS would not only tap Saberkas for candidate selection, the youth group is reputed as a primary training ground and major leadership pipeline for young GPS candidates, including for PBB, in both state and general elections.
“The most number of candidates would always be from Saberkas,” he added, as speculation grew that the state legislative assembly could be dissolved on Friday.
Abdul Karim also claimed that GPS is tapping Saberkas for candidates as it cuts across religion and race as a platform.
“Saberkas is one platform where everything cuts across race and religion.
“Anything to do with religion, anything to do with race, it cuts across.”
Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Openg, a former Saberkas president for over a decade, rose through the youth movement leadership in the late 1970s.
Other former Saberkas leaders who have been made candidates are state Deputy Youth, Sports and Entrepreneur Development Minister Datuk Gerald Rentap Jabu and assemblymen Datuk Fazzrudin Abdul Rahman (Tupong) and Azizul Annuar Adenan (Tanjong Datu).
