Lubok Antu MP's application to join PRS gets strong objection from party members

KUCHING, Aug 7 — Lubok Antu Member of Parliament Jugah Muyang's application to join Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) is still under “Keep In View” tray (KIV) as decided by the party’s supreme council, Youth leader Datuk Snowdan Lawan said today.

He said this is because the application was met with strong protests from unhappy party members, especially those from the Engkilili division, who questioned Jugah’s motive to be a PRS member again at this stage.

He said the application was sent directly to the party headquarters instead of through the Engkilili division which should be the case.

“The supreme council will decide whether to accept or reject the application in its next round of meeting, the date of which has not been fixed,” Lawan said when asked to comment on remarks made by Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Openg yesterday.

“In our first round of supreme council meeting, the application was discussed thoroughly because of the protests so that is why we put the application under KIV,” he said.

He said even if the supreme council accepts Jugah’s membership application, it is not necessary that the party will nominate him to defend his Lubok Antu seat in the coming 15th general election (GE15).

“We have identified a potential candidate for Lubok Antu and he, being a local from Engkilili, has been going around to meet the people,” he said.

Lawan, who is also the Deputy Minister of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts, said the chances of Jugah being accepted back into PRS is slim due to the strong objection from party members in Lubok Antu.

He said the parliamentarian was a PRS member of Engkilili branch, but quit and contested as an Independent candidate in GE14 and won, beating the official PRS candidate Robert Pasang Alam.

Jugah then joined PKR after GE14, then left to become an Independent MP.

Yesterday, Abang Johari, who is also Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) chairman and PBB president, said he would leave the matter to PRS to decide on Jugah’s membership application.

He said Jugah had applied to join PRS, not PBB.