Dr Johnichal Rayong Ngipa
KUCHING: Dr Johnichal Rayong Ngipa defended his expression of support for Lubok Antu MP Datuk William Nyallau Badak by stating that he was just reporting to the Barisan Nasional (BN) the reality on the ground.
The Engkilili assemblyman said he was not trying to meddle in Parti Rakyat Sarawak’s (PRS) affairs.
Stating that the party could say whatever it wanted, he asserted that as far as he was concerned, he was merely saying that the majority of the constituents in Engkilili were still loyal to Nyallau because he had a good track record in serving
them and that it was not advisable for BN to simply reject Nyallau as the candidate for Lubok Antu without properly considering the far and wide reaching consequences.
“My only intention is to make sure that the BN spirit and unity in my constituency of Engkilili remains intact. Engkilili is also part of the Lubok Antu parliamentary constituency and I am supporting the MP and in the same token he is supporting me. We have been suffering from political phobia ever since outsiders became or tried to become our representatives in the past and we are not going to let that happen again,” he said.
“As far as I am concerned, being a representative of Engkilili and one who has visited every village there, my observation and finding is that people still want YB Datuk Nyallau to be their MP even after the next parliamentary election,” he said.
“I was just making my report for BN and not meddling with affairs of PRS,” he emphasised.
Nyallau is a PRS supreme council member.
Rayong said: “We in Engkilili like previously will again like to give the BN, the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister, a strong mandate through our MP YB Datuk William Nyallau,” he added.
Rayong was responding to an allegation by PRS president Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Masing and its Youth information chief Andy Lawrence that he was meddling in PRS affairs by supporting Nyallau recently amid talks that PRS might want to offload the latter in the next parliamentary election to pave way for a new face.
“The media twice mentioned that YB Datuk William Nyallau might be dropped at the forthcoming general election (or GE14) which made voters in my constituency totally unhappy and therefore I am duty bound to let the BN leaders know in regards to the said sentiment and their voices as they still want him to be retained as the BN candidate for GE14,” he said.