In a report by The Borneo Post, PKR women’s chief Zuraida Kamaruddin, who travelled to Sarawak last weekend with the party’s vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar, said she believed the opposition could bring “valuable changes” to the state.
At a press conference in Kuching yesterday, she said the only and fastest way for Sarawak to regain its autonomy was to support Pakatan Harapan (PH).
“There is no way that the BN (Barisan Nasional) government, after 50 years (of ruling the country), will give (back Sarawak’s autonomy). If they wanted to give back, they would have given back earlier,” she was quoted as saying.
Zuraida had been barred from entering Sarawak on her three previous attempts in 2013, 2014 and 2016.
Nurul meanwhile was barred from the state in December 2015 after she was photographed meeting with Jacel Kiram, the daughter of self-proclaimed Sulu ruler Jamalul Kiram, who was responsible for the Lahad Datu intrusion in 2013.
However, both lawmakers were allowed to enter Sarawak on Saturday via the Kuching International Airport.
They had been scheduled to attend a PKR open house in Petra Jaya that night.
Speaking at the press conference, Zuraida said given the current political situation in which PH now had leaders who were formerly from BN, the opposition pact would now be stronger.
“The ex-prime minister (Dr Mahathir Mohamad) is there, ex-deputy prime minister (Muhyiddin Yassin) is there and the ex-menteri besar (Mukhriz Mahathir) is there together with us,” she was quoted as saying.
Sarawak PKR chairman Baru Bian likewise asked Sarawakians to give PH a chance to prove itself in the state.
“Please, don’t say that we’ll be the same as BN. No, you have not given us the opportunity to rule and the manifesto is a political promise that we have for the people of Sarawak and Sabah.
“In fact, it has been proven in Selangor and Penang that whatever that had been promised had been fulfilled,” he said in the report.