SERIAN: Will Opar assemblyman Datuk Ranum Mina, a member of Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) return and join the other Bidayuh assemblymen of Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) to capture all eight Bidayuh-majority seats in coming the 12th state election?
Ranum left Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) to join PSB, which was then known as United People’s Party (UPP).
Last year, there were speculations he might join Datuk Jerip Susil who quit PSB on July 11 to join Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), a component party of GPS.
Last year, Ranum said he would “sink and swim” with PSB.
However, GPS said its door was always open to those who left their initial parties to return.
On this, PBB senior vice president Datuk Amar Michael Manyin Jawong said GPS always welcomed Ranum to rejoin GPS and would want to work together with him to win the seat.
“Ranum used to join us for the meetings (on election preparation) before he moved to PSB … We would like him (Ranum) to be with us.
“Hopefully, he changes his mind at the last moment and joins us in GPS to win all the eight Bidayuh seats,” he told a press conference after officiating the upgrading completion of St Paul Church at Kampung Tema Saan, Tebedu on Sunday (Dec 13).
Asked whether the Bidayuh seats would be represented by new faces in the election, Manyin, who is also the Tebedu assemblyman, said he did not know.
“We have meetings after meetings and I have meetings with all the Bidayuh assemblymen before the Covid-19 pandemic hit us as we were trying to prepare for the coming election,” he said.
Asked whether he would contest in the state election again, he replied, “You know, I am already old. I am an old man. Recently, Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Jemut Masing had an exchange of views with those who said the young should take over from the old so that new ideas could be presented. I am the oldest in the Cabinet now.”
PBB currently holds the Bidayuh seats of tebedu, Tarat, Kedup, Bukit Semuja, Serembu and Mambong seats while the Tasik Biru seat is held by Progressive Democratic Party (PDP).
