Debate a waste of time, Karim tells DAP

June 1, 2012, Friday

KUCHING: Some Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) leaders considered the challenge by Democratic Action Party (DAP) to a debate as a waste of time.

PBB supreme council member Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said it was just a way for the opposition to distort and twist the fact that no Sarawakian actually starved when Barisan Nasional (BN) won the last state election as claimed by DAP in their election slogans.

“It is not that we are scared to debate but we just don’t want to waste our time on trivial matters just to gain cheap publicity.

“For the DAP, if the statement in the slogan was incorrect, just apologise to the Chief Minister Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud and the people or Sarawak, no need to debate,” he said when contacted yesterday.

Earlier, state DAP secretary general Chong Chieng Jen personally delivered a letter challenging PBB leaders to a debate on one of its slogans in the last state election entitled “Bai Mao Bu Dao, Ren Min Chi Cao”.

“The slogan literally means White Hair Don’t Fall, People Eat Grass and the commonly understood meaning of Eat Grass is “difficult to earn a living”. The true meaning of the phrase is: If Taib Doesn’t Fall, it will be difficult for people to earn a living,” he told reporters earlier.

Abdul Karim, who is Assistant Youth Development Minister, said there was no point to debate as the slogan was just a tactic employed by DAP to fish for votes in the last state polls.

He said that everyone understood the meaning of the slogan and because of that the DAP wanted to free itself after realizing that it was trapped after choosing the slogan.

“Now show us who are eating grass or starving in the state. As far as I know no one starved since BN or Pehin Sri Taib returned to power,” he said.

PBB Youth chief Datuk Fadillah Yusof said the party felt the debate as not necessary.

He said that it was suffice to have debates during parliamentary and state legislative assembly (DUN) sittings and the rest of the time was for them to focus on development agendas and problems faced by the people.

“For us in PBB our priority is to serve and work for the rakyat. We don’t want to get involved in political rhetoric and facts twisting,” he said.