KUCHING: Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) is confident it will be able to wrest back Pelagus from the opposition in the next state election despite Larry Sng’s declaration that he has been eyeing that seat.
Larry is president of Sarawak Workers Party.
PRS vice-president Majang Renggi believed voters in Pelagus were now wiser and aware that the opposition could not do much to develop the area.
“I am sure voters in Pelagus realised that it was mistake to vote for the opposition in the last state election as present Pelagus elected representative George Lagong from SWP contributed nothing to its development.
“We are not perturbed by the news that Larry is eyeing the seat. He is most welcome to contest in Pelagus. We uphold his democratic right to do so, but he will soon realise that Pelagus is no longer that easy to retain,” Majang told The Borneo Post yesterday.
Majang was responding to Larry’s statement on Monday that SWP had decided to contest in seven seats including Pelagus where Larry himself would stand as a candidate.
Meanwhile, PRS member Bakat Gira who hails from Kapit said it was a case of ‘once bitten twice shy’ for the people of Pelagus. They made the wrong choice in the last state election and would not make the same mistake again.
“The best George has been doing is talk but no action. He cannot deliver because he is in the opposition and that is not what the people want. They want a representative that can bring tangible development.
“Now they realise that only a BN representative can deliver. Even if Larry were to contest, I believe the people have already lost confidence in the party and its candidates,” said Bakat.
As Pelagus assemblyman from 2001 to 2011, Larry believed George Lagong was warming the seat for him when Larry himself was uncertain of his own political move during the 2011 state election.
He was left partyless after being sacked from PRS for insubordination in 2009.
Larry later registered SWP in April 2013 which contested in all six parliamentary seats held by PRS but to no avail.