Race to be PBB candidate for Puncak Borneo heats up
KUCHING: The race to be Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) candidate for Puncak Borneo parliamentary seat in the next general election is heating up as aspiring members have begun to go to the ground to build rapport with the constituents.
Party sources said a senior Bidayuh leader in PBB had directed three potential candidates to start moving around to meet the constituents and serve them.
The three are one each from the state constituencies of Tarat, Mambong and Serembu, which are all under Puncak Borneo.
Party sources said the potential candidate from Serembu is a practising lawyer; from Mambong, a teacher; and from Tarat, an employee with a leading corporate organisation.
All three are below 50 years old, and all have been actively moving on the ground.
“For now, they all are using Facebook as a platform to promote themselves and show their activities on the ground.
“You can search their Facebook and see what they have been doing,” a source said.
A Facebook search carried out on the three individuals proved so.
But it seems the aspirants are not just the three, as sources said another PBB member, a pensioner, is also actively going on the ground to meet the constituents and serve them.
A Facebook search to check on the individual’s political activity found that he had been invited to launch some activities of the local community, especially in Mambong.
Puncak Borneo parliamentary constituency is previously a PBB stronghold held by the late Datuk Seri Dr James Dawos Mamit before the seat was won by Willie Mongin who contested on a Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) ticket in the 14th General Election in 2018.
Willie, who is Plantation Industries and Commodities Deputy Minister, has said he will defend his parliamentary seat despite Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) claiming that the seat belongs to them.
He had also hoped that GPS will give him space and opportunity to defend the seat.
In fact, he said, he was ready to defend the seat for GPS to ensure that Sarawak’s development agenda could be continued.
“This was proven in the last state election, I instructed my supporters to give strong support to the GPS candidates who contested in the Mambong, Tarat and Serembu state constituencies which are under the Puncak Borneo constituency,” he was quoted as saying when declaring open the Persatuan Segu Bunuk Penrissen (PSBP) management office in Kampung Bunuk recently.
In the 14th general election, Willie garnered 18,885 votes with a majority of 4,005 votes against Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Genot Sinel who got 14,860 votes and Aspirasi candidate Buln Ribos who polled 795 votes.
He left PKR in February 2020 and joined Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) in March 2020.
The 14th Parliament of Malaysia will automatically dissolve on July 16, 2023. The first meeting of the first session of the 14th Parliament of Malaysia was held on July 16, 2018.