PKR supreme council member Mansor Othman told reporters in Kuching that the party’s national leadership would never “undermine” the decisions made by the state leadership in regards to local issues.

“Sarawak has a different landscape and history. We are not going to undermine what leaders in Sarawak say,” Mansor told reporters after PKR’s state leadership council meeting today.

Present were state PKR leader Baru Bian, state vice chairman See Chee How and Miri MP Dr Michael Teo. Close to two dozen other state leaders also attended.

“We certainly give thought to what has been decided here. Sabah and Sarawak are very special to us. Even to national politics, they give a different perspective,” said Mansor.

Mansor said the party was now particularly attentive to the two East Malaysian states after last week’s defection of Sabah PKR chief and Klias assemblyman Lajim Ukin and Penampang MP Darell Leiking.

“After what happened in Sabah, we are also giving attention to Sarawak. We are considering all perspectives. We give our support to Sarawak. And if anything is coming in, we are in touch with the Sarawak leaders,” said Mansor, a former deputy chief minister of Penang.

“We are not going to undermine what the Sarawak leaders say and we certainly give thought to what has been decided here. We are always in touch, in terms of our relationship with our Sarawakian leaders,” he added.

Baru Bian said PKR’s list of candidates for the next general election would be finalised by the end of October. PKR would contest the same seats as in 2013. (Of the 14 parliamentary seats contested, the party won only in Miri.)

He added that he did not foresee any seat clashes with the DAP as had happened in the state elections in May, when DAP and PKR clashed in six seats, resulting in losses in all the seats contested, including the newly created state seat of Batu Kitang.