Pakatan Rakyat will not be able to emulate the concept of power sharing which has been practised since 50 years ago by the BN government, Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud said today.

Instead, he said, what the opposition pact would do, if it were to form a government, was to divide power.

siby by-election nomination day 080510 mahmud taib 02 "Dividing power and sharing of power are two different things. In BN, they agreed from the beginning on power sharing, unlike the opposition pact which wants to share power only after getting the mandate from the people," he said in his speech at the Parti Rakyat Sarawak's (PRS) triennial delegates conference in Bintulu.

Abdul Taib, who is also the state BN chairman, said the power sharing in BN was evident with the close cooperation among all component parties in their planning, as well as vision, without any agenda for the interest of a certain party only.

He said any motion tabled by any of the BN component party would be well-accepted by other parties in the coalition.

Taib said it was because of the good interaction among all BN component parties that the coalition was able to carry out effective programmes for the people.

He said the opposition pact only wanted to be the people's champion by criticising what the BN government had planned for the people.

Taib said that voters in the Sibu parliamentary by-election should choose a candidate who can provide the link between them and the present government.

He said what was most important was a candidate who could work and continue serving the people in the Sibu parliamentary constituency after the conclusion of the by-election.

"Ask who is actually planning to serve the people... the Barisan Nasional or the opposition, if we realise it's the BN, then we should continue communication with the BN although there are times that the BN cannot fulfill all the wishes of the rakyat," he said.

PRS need to change Dayak mindset

Meanwhile, PRS president Dr James Jemut Masing said PRS would continue to champion the interests of the rural people and bring them out of the vicious circle of poverty.

He said the concept of power sharing in BN had greatly benefitted the rural folks through the implementation of new policies in the development of Native Customary Right (NCR) land.

According to Masing, PRS was gaining the people's support as evident from its success in the 2006 state election and the 2008 general election, where it won six parliamentary seats and nine state seats.

The main challenge for PRS today was to change the mindset of the rural folks, including the Dayak.

"We don't want a situation where when they think of food, it is to go to the rivers and into the forest to hunt," he added.

On the plan to merge with the Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP), he said it could not be done in haste.

- Bernama