Balung rep Osman still waiting for membership approval from PKR
TAWAU: Balung assemblyman Datuk Osman Jamal confirmed he had applied to join Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR).
Osman said he had met with Keadilan leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and secretary general Saifudin Nasution before applying online to become a member and was approved.
However, he said his membership would be subject to the approval by PKR’s Majlis Pimpinan Pusat (MPP) which would listen to comments from Sabah PKR liaison chief and secretary general.
“Everyone knows I contested under Barisan Nasional (BN), so my party is Umno. But before the swearing in of the chief minister I already supported Datuk Seri Shafie Abdal to become the chief minister,” he said when interviewed yesterday during his Hari Raya open house held at Lau Gek Poh Foundation Hall.
“Till today, the party I joined is Keadilan. After meeting Datuk Seri Anwar and secretary general Saifudin Nasution, I applied through online and was approved, but subject to approval of the MPP in Kuala Lumpur,” he said, adding he was confident that he would be accepted as a member and believed PKR leaders had different views.
On his Balung committee when he was in Umno, he said the committee had given him the mandate to choose any party to join in order to continue the development in Balung.
“Based on their mandate, I chose PKR as platform for my struggle and so on as PKR is a national party and is one of the component parties in the Federal government,” he said.
On the comments by the Sabah PKR leadership, he said they had their rights to give comments on his application to become a member.
He said at the moment he had about 2,000 supporters and the numbers were still climbing since the membership drive started two weeks ago and expected the number to reach 3,000 to 4,000.
“When I met Datuk Seri Anwar, one of my promises if accepted is to strengthen Sabah’s PKR, especially Balung and in general Tawau and Sabah.
Osman who won the Balung constituency seat under the BN ticket in the recent 14th General Election, threw his support to Shafie after BN faced a major defeat and was the only assemblyman without a party in the new Sabah government under Shafie.