SARAWAK Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg today said the other side has attempted to lure MPs from the state’s ruling Gabungan Parti Sarawak to cross over amid a power struggle on the peninsula. 

Abang Johari, who likened GPS to a “beautiful woman” said the coalition has been approached by “suitors” whom he did not name.

GPS supports the Perikatan Nasional government of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin but is not a formal member of the alliance. 

The third largest bloc in parliament, GPS is made up of Parti Rakyat Sarawak, Sarawak United People’s Party, Progressive Democratic Party and PBB.

“When you are a beautiful woman, surely everyone wants you,” he said, metaphorically alluding to the 17 MPs in GPS whose support tilted the balance of power to favour Muhyiddin in the February political crisis.

In response to questions of whether competing political parties in Putrajaya had tried to gain GPS’ support, the Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu president said “It’s up to the parents to accept the proposal and if the prospective in-law is good”.

“But who would want to accept the proposal if the in-law is bad?”

The chief minister said in February that GPS was backing Muhyiddin for political stability.

The Sarawak pact would not support former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad when he flipflopped on the position of DAP in Pakatan Harapan.

Defections from PH that led to the February political crisis brought down Dr Mahathir’s PH government and four state governments.

Talk of a counter-coup persists among the players in national politics. – June 12, 2020.