SARAWAK has a new political bloc formed among the state’s smallest parties.

State Reform Party (Star), Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak Baru (PBDSB), Sarawak Workers’ Party (SWP) and Parti Tenaga Rakyat Sarawak (Teras) sealed their collaboration under the name Sarawak Baru in Sibu yesterday.

They will not be aligned to any existing bloc, whether Pakatan Harapan, Barisan Nasional or Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS).

PBDSB president Cobbold John was picked to the lead the new coalition as acting chairman.

One of the resolutions at yesterday’s meeting, John said, was to form a working committee tasked with studying and compiling issues that would form “the core of Sarawak Baru’s political struggle”.

Each component party has been assigned tasks each is familiar with or specialise in.

Star, for example, has been tasked with compile issues related to the state’s grievances and erosion of rights in the Malaysia Agreement 1963, dispute over oil and gas resources, and on the two controversial laws that infringed on the state’s rights, the Territorial Sea Act 2012 and the Petroleum Development Act 1974.

Star’s president is the prominent state rights activist Lina Soo.

PBDSB, meanwhile, as a party whose membership is restricted to Dayaks, would look into issues involving Sarawak’s indigenous people, such as native customary rights (NCR) over land and customs.

SWP, formed by the family of Julau MP Larry Sng in 2012 with the sole aim to oust Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) in the 2013 general election, now has a new direction.

It has been given the responsibility of tackling workers’ issues, particularly those in the oil and gas industry, oil palm plantations and construction sites.

Teras, formed in 2013 by members who were booted out of the then Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (now Progressive Democratic Party – PDP) will take up issues relating to infrastructure development in the state.

John said one of SWP’s tasks is to also study the Sarawak Labour Ordinance which “we feel has many outdated provisions that need to be updated or amended to meet the current and future demands and challenges in the labour market”.

He said the working committee has given the four parties until January next year to submit their findings before the next meeting of Sarawak Baru’s leadership. – August 13, 2018.