Agrees to join unity government.
Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) chairman Tan Sri Abang Johari Openg today said he has accepted apologies from DAP secretary general Anthony Loke and chairman Lim Guan Eng for past insults to him and the state government.
“We accepted their apologies with an open heart,” Abang Johari told reporters after chairing the GPS supreme council meeting in Kuching.
He said Loke had paid a courtesy call to the GPS leadership in Kuching this morning to apologise in person while Lim had tendered his publicly through his Facebook page.
Asked if Loke had requested for other things from him, he said the important thing was that he has apologised for the DAP as a whole.
“In other words, he acknowledged their mistakes.
“What he said was to open a new chapter in the DAP-GPS relationship,” the state premier said.
“But at the same they must respect our component SUPP (Sarawak United People’s Party),” he said.
He said the apologies meant that “we are right all this time and that we practise clean politics.”
Abang Johari said the apologies by the two DAP leaders would not change the position of the DAP in Sarawak as the Opposition.
He said the state DAP will still not be part of the state government.
GPS will be joining the unity government that will be led by newly minted Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, as per the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s decree.
Abang Johari said GPS abides by the Agong’s decree of wanting a strong and stable government.
“The Agong advised us to form a unity government to overcome the political impasse.
“We obey the constitutional monarchy and the Rukun Negara clearly states that we must obey the king, even though we don’t have a king in Sarawak,” he said.
Asked if GPS would be collaborating with DAP, Abang Johari said he would leave it to Anwar as it is not his prerogative.
He declined to reveal whether Anwar had contacted him on Wednesday (Nov 23) or Thursday.
To a question on whether GPS would ask for a deputy prime minister’s post, Abang Johari said “we’ll see”.