Datuk Joseph Entulu Belaun
KUCHING: United People’s Party (UPP) has not received any formal application for membership from former members of parliament Datuk Joseph Entulu Belaun and Datuk William Nyallau Badak.
Party secretary-general George Lo clarified that at this stage no application for membership had been received from the two former members of Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS).
He said UPP’s door is open to anybody who shares the same vision that the party members have.
“If Entulu and Nyallau share that vision that we have, then we would welcome them as members of our party.
“Anybody else, who shares the vision that we have, is welcome then to join our party,” he told reporters after submitting UPP’s formal application for a change of name and logo to the Sarawak Registrar of Societies (RoS) office here yesterday.
Lo was asked to comment on speculation that the two were likely to join UPP.
Asked if there are conversations going on between UPP leaders and the two, he said, “I am not at liberty to disclose that at the present moment.”
While he acknowledged that Nyallau and Engkilili assemblyman Dr Johnical Rayong Ngipa, who is UPP youth chief, are friends, he said no formal application had been received from the former Lubok Antu MP.
He also suggested that the question of whether Entulu, who is former Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, had applied to join UPP be directed to Entulu himself.
He, however, said if Nyallau and Entulu make a formal application to join UPP, their application would be given the fullest consideration.
“I think both of them will be a great asset for the party, if they decide to join UPP,” he said.
Entulu is former Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) deputy president and Selangau MP while Nyallau is former PRS supreme council member.
The two, together with three other supreme council members – Nyempah Sabot, Edward Kurik and Adriana Chumang – were sacked from the party on April 22 this year for disobeying the party over its candidacy list for the general election and also for ridiculing as well as putting the party into disrepute.
PRS then was adamant in fielding new faces in Selangau and Lubok Antu – lawyer Rita Insol and Sabah chief prosecutor Robert Pasang Alam respectively. The former then lost to Baru Bian from PKR and the latter lost to an Independent Jugah Muyang.
Lo said UPP will be going on the ground to recruit more members, assuring that the party’s door is open to anybody.
“As I have said, we in UPP share our aspiration and our vision, and we hope that our party will get bigger and stronger and more multi-racial.
“We do not want to be just a Chinese-based party like we were before,” he said.
Earlier, Lo and UPP executive secretary Margaret Fong submitted the application for change of party name and logo as well as the letter of amendment to the party’s constitution that was passed at the UPP extraordinary delegates’ conference here last Saturday to Sarawak RoS director Georgina Apphia Ngau.