PARTI Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) vice-president Abdul Karim Hamzah has said lawmakers from Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) will again be the kingmakers, like they are now, after the next general election.

“I’m not being arrogant or bossy but after the next general election, GPS will again give the country political stability,” he said.

Karim, Sarawak’s tourism, creative industry and performing arts minister, said even with 31 seats – the number of parliamentary seats in the state – “we will be the one who will again stabilise the country”.

Karim said his assertion is based on the support the state ruling coalition had in last December’s state elections.

“Some 94.6 % of Sarawak folk support the ruling coalition. That reflects strong solidarity.

“We know what’s happening in Peninsular Malaysia. There wouldn’t be any party there that would be able to have a solid majority to form a government.

“And that is when Sarawak will have to be there to lend a hand to stabilise (things). We have done that with the present government.”

GPS is a coalition of state-based parties – PBB being the lead party, the Sarawak United Peoples’ Party, Parti Rakyat Sarawak and the Progressive Democratic Party.

Currently it supports the Barisan Nasional-led federal government with its 18 lawmakers. The 18 are among 116 lawmakers backing Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s government.

Karim said politics in the peninsula is in shambles with no one political party able to muster enough seats to form the government by itself. 

He felt the latest revelation by Pasir Salak lawmaker Tajuddin Abdul Rahman will only add to the infighting in Umno and register at the ballot box in the upcoming general election

“Today it’s this and tomorrow it’s that. One minute you support Anwar (PKR president Anwar Ibrahim), the next you support Mahathir (former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad) and then you say you support Ismail,” he said in reference to Tajuddin’s revelation that at least 15 Umno MPs had signed statutory declarations to support Anwar to become prime minister.

The Pasir Salak MP said Umno members who signed included party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Najib Razak, and Padang Rengas MP Mohamed Nazri Aziz.

“There must be something wrong with it (the politics in the peninsula),” Karim said. – June 29, 2022.