CLAIMS that six Sarawak MPs and three assemblymen from the ruling Gabungan Parti Sarawak will defect to another party have been dismissed by various leaders.

Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) president Abang Johari Openg rubbished the claim while Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) president James Masing dismissed the news as “fake”.

“There is no such thing,” Abang Johari, who is also Sarawak chief minister, said.

He said he was not even aware of the claim until he was told about a Facebook post made by a little-known party called Parti Pribumi Sarawak.

Masing, who is is also a deputy chief minister, and state Tourism, Youth and Sports Minister Abdul Karim Hamzah both said the reporter who “broke” the story could have fallen victim to fake news.

“Don’t trust social media as a source for news,” Masing said on the claim.

Karim said that the claim was “the work of a mad man”.

Besides PBB and PRS, the other two components in the four-party GPS are the Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) and People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Parti Pribumi Sarawak, which, on its Facebook page, uses the name Pribumi, had said that PRS assemblymen and PBB MPs were among those planning to cross over.

A “party spokesman” told the Malay-language Utusan Borneo that the nine reps were leaving because they had “lost faith in the GPS leadership, particularly PBB”.

Pribumi is not linked to Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu), which had set up a branch in Stampin, a Kuching suburb.

Pribumi’s logo on its Facebook page is a yellow sail of a traditional Malay fishing boat against a red background, while Bersatu’s logo is a stylised hibiscus flower.

Bersatu Stampin branch chairman Johan Mohamad late last night denied any links with Pribumi, saying “we had no idea they existed”.

Talk has surfaced that the Santubong MP, former natural resources and environment minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, Petra Jaya MP Fadillah Yusof (former works minister), Kota Samarahan MP Rubiah Wang, Batang Sadong MP Nancy Shukri (former minister in the prime minister’s department), Batang Lupar MP Rohani Abdul Karim (former women, family and community development minister) and Limbang MP Hasbi Habibollah were the six reps.

Wan Junaidi, however, said the claim was “nonsense”.

Meanwhile, political analyst Jeniri Amir said the claim “looked incredibly illogical”.

He added, however, that it could be part of an anti-GPS group’s psychological war tactic ahead of the state elections in three years’ time. – August 6, 2018.