We won’t backstab our GPS allies, says Tiong

Tiong King Sing with guests at a Chinese New Year gathering in Bintulu today attended by Sarawak premier Abang Johari Openg and state ministers. (Facebook pic)

PETALING JAYA: Progressive Democratic Party president Tiong King Sing has sought to assure his colleagues in Gabungan Parti Sarawak that his party will not stab any of them in the back.

This comes amid continued talk of Tiong’s party absorbing Parti Sarawak Bersatu, a splinter of the Sarawak United People’s Party, which is a member of GPS.

Tiong said all PDP members have pledged their support to GPS chairman and Sarawak premier Abang Johari Openg to maintain “unity and cooperation” in the state government, Dayak Daily reported.

“You (Abang Johari) don’t have to worry. We in PDP will not backstab any component party,” Tiong was quoted as saying.

Yesterday, PSB held a closed-door extraordinary delegates conference yesterday, reportedly to table a resolution to dissolve the party and join PDP en bloc. PSB president Wong Soon Koh and other party leaders and members have been tight-lipped on the outcome of the meeting.

Wong was a senior member of SUPP until he was sacked in 2014. He went on to start the Unity People’s Party, which entered a pact with SUPP for the 2016 state elections, then it rebranded itself as PSB in 2019.

Wong, who served for 15 years as Sarawak’s second finance minister, resigned from his state Cabinet post in July 2019 citing “hostile relations” between PSB and GPS component parties.

Wong’s party then went solo in the 2021 Sarawak elections, winning four seats to lead the opposition bloc. However, last year, Wong declared PSB’s support for both Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Abang Johari, before signing an agreement with Tiong’s PDP.