Dr Rundi: Uggah, Awg Tengah to be elected PBB deputy presidents
We chose him because we know his background well, says Dr Rundi
KUCHING: Par ti P es aka Bumiputera Bersatu ( PBB) senior vice- presidents Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas and Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hassan are expected to be elected as the party’s deputy presidents during the party’s convention in April next year. This was disclosed by the party’s secretary- general Dato Sri Dr Stephen Rundi yesterday.
He said as far as Uggah was concerned, his election was based on the understanding between the current deputy president Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Alfred Jabu and Uggah as his successor for the Pesaka wing of the deputy president’s post.
As for the Bumiputera wing, Awang Tengah is expected to replace Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg, who is now acting president and who is expected to be endorsed as the president of the party during this Saturday’s PBB supreme council meeting.
“We have a very strong party tradition. It has been put in place since the time of former chief minister Tun Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud. So based on party tradition, we have a hierarchy system which we normally follow. But not necessary so as in the case of the late chief minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem. He was just an information chief before his appointment in 2014, but we all knew then that he was the right leader to succeed Pehin Sri.
“After his (Adenan) passing, we have Datuk Amar Abang Johari taking over the helm. In PBB, we have a system in place and this was shown after the shock passing of the late chief minister. Soon after his passing, we already knew what to do,” Dr Rundi told the media after the swearing-in of the state cabinet and assistant ministers at the State Legislative Assembly yesterday.
Dr Rundi, who is also Minister of Public Utilities, also revealed that among the agendas of the meeting this Saturday would be to endorse Abang Johari as the new president of the party. “Besides that, we will also decide on the party’s delegates’ conference to be held end of July,” he said.
Meanwhile, Dr Rundi said the appointment of Abang Johari as the sixth chief minister last Friday was based on the consensus of the party’s top leaders.
“We chose him because we know his background well and because we believe he is now ready to take over the helm of the party.”
He said as the party’s secretarygeneral, it was his duty to know his party matters well to ensure that it would be able to react to any kind of situation.
“You can see this last week that after the shocking demise of Tok Nan, we knew what to do. And we decided that Abang Johari should take over because if we leave the vacuum too long there would be bound to be problem. So we must decide immediately,” he explained on Abang Johari’s appointment just two days after Adenan’s passing last Friday.