Masing said that while PRS agreed it should evolve into something better, it would not be joining Pakatan Harapan. — Picture by Sulok Tawie

KUCHING, June 7 — The state Barisan Nasional (BN) supreme council will meet “within the next three weeks” to decide if its four component parties would remain in the coalition, Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) president Tan Sri Dr James Masing said today.

He said he spoke privately with leaders of Parti Pesaka Bumiputra Bersatu (PBB), Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) and Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) after the 14th general election May 9 on their positions in BN.

“The feelings among us are that we all agreed to evolve ourselves and move on into something better,” he told Malay Mail.

“I don’t want to say we want to leave the BN because it denotes a sense of betrayal. After all, the other parties which still want to be in BN are all our friends,” the deputy chief minister said.

As for PRS, Masing said: “We have discussions among ourselves and we all agreed that we should evolve into something better, but not joining Pakatan Harapan (PH).”

He said PRS wanted to pre-empt what are the political scenarios likely to happen in future.

“I don’t know about other parties (PBB, SUPP and PDP) think, but we believe that we need to think far ahead for our survival,” he said.

Asked to confirm a report that Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Openg, in a meeting in Putrajaya last week, had informed Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad of PBB’s intention to leave BN, Masing said he was not aware of it.

“It is not the concern of PRS,” he added, stating that Abang Johari had not told other state leaders of what transpired at the meeting with Dr Mahathir.

According to an unnamed source quoted by The Malaysian Insight news portal, Abang Johari had also informed acting BN chairman Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi of PBB’s desire to leave the Opposition coalition.