PBB secretive for now, says Awg Tengah

Posted on October 19, 2010, Tuesday

KUCHING: Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB)  senior vice-president Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hassan said yesterday that any development within the party would not be made known “so soon”.
Awang Tengah, who is Second Planning and Resource Management Minister, in stating this, refused to talk about the party’s candidates for the next state election which would only be held next year.
Asked on talks that PBB would be fielding federal Minister of Environment and Natural Resources Dato Sri Douglas Uggah Embas in the next state election, he said: “We just wait and see.”

Uggah, who is Betong member of parliament, is also PBB Engkilili chairman, but is from Bukit Saban.
Talks are also rife that Uggah, a PBB senior vice-president, may be next in line to lead PBB’s Dayak-dominated Pesaka wing in the near future and to be “politically right”, he needs to be a state assemblyman.
Political observers had also said Uggah might also have to swap his MP post with an assemblyman within the PBB fold.
Awang Tengah also did not wish to entertain queries on whether PBB has identified new faces to be fielded in the next state polls.
In another development, Engkilili assemblyman Dr Johnical Rayong is now officially a member of the Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP).
He has waited for the opportunity since the day he left the Sarawak National Party (SNAP) to become pro-Barisan Nasional (BN) independent.
After he left SNAP, he was given the honour to present minor rural project (MRP) grants, a task normally entrusted to elected representatives from the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN).
SUPP approved his membership through a letter following the party’s central working committee meeting.
The letter dated sometime this October was addressed to the secretary of SUPP Engkilili Cr Nyambong Maweng and a copy extended to Rayong.
In the letter, SUPP also stated that Rayong is the best candidate to defend Engkilili for the BN in the next state polls.
Rayong, who stood on SNAP ticket in the 2006 election, defeated BN-SUPP candidate Johnathan Krai Pilo by a 426-vote majority in a two-cornered fight.
Prior to joining SNAP, he was former Malaysian Dayak Congress (MDC) pro tem deputy chairman.
MDC’s application as a political party was shot down by the Home Ministry and it probably would never see light of day as its pro tem committee members’ commitment to get it registered was reported to be waning.