SARAWAK’S ex-Barisan Nasional parties will unlikely be represented in the Pakatan Harapan federal government, the ruling coalition’s deputy president Lim Guan Eng said.

He said the Sarawak parties, which announced their break from BN today, might have expressed support for the federal government and Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s leadership, but they are not part of PH.

“It is unlikely they will be represented in the PH government, just like how we are not in the Sarawak government.

“If they are in PH, it is a different story. Then our representatives should also be considered as part of the state’s (administration).

“But they are not, so the question doesn’t arise,” Lim said in Penang this evening.

Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu Sarawak (PBB), Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP), Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) and the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) have quit BN today.

The four parties make up the ruling Sarawak state government with 66 out of the total 82 state seats. They have since formed their own coalition known as Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS).

PH parties in Sarawak are the opposition with only 10 seats. In the last state elections in 2016, DAP won seven while PKR three.

Lim, who is DAP secretary-general, said GPS could not be represented in PH at the federal level but treat PH as the opposition in its own state government.

“You can’t say you want to be represented at the federal level, but not at state level for PH. That is unacceptable.

“This is the hypothetical situation now. They are supportive but not in PH,” he said after breaking fast with locals at Masjid Jamek Kubang Buaya in Butterworth in his parliamentary constituency of Bagan.

Lim said the Sarawak parties have seen reality that BN was not the future but they still did not want to accept the fact that PH was the future.

“We hope we can convince Sarawakians that PH is the future. It will be decisive in the coming Sarawak elections in three years’ time.”

In GE14, BN fell from power, only managing to win 79 seats out of 222 seats in the Dewan Rakyat. With GPS pulling out, BN just lost another 19 seats.

Meanwhile, on renegotiating the High-Speed Rail (HSR) project with Singapore, Lim, who is finance minister, said the government still needed to discuss the matter first before going to the bilateral meeting.

“We will have to have a discussion to summarise our findings before we proceed down to Singapore.

“That will not be so soon, but we hope it will not be too long either. Remember, we are still in the midst of Hari Raya. Let us celebrate first,” he said.

Earlier today, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said the finance, economic affairs and transport ministers would be going to Singapore to renegotiate the deal.

Dr Mahathir in an interview with Japan’s Nikkei Asian Review said the government was merely postponing the project with Singapore.

He said Malaysia would benefit greatly from such a project in the future but the country “cannot afford it at this moment”. – June 12, 2018.