Wong (ninth left), together with party leaders and members, give their thumbs-up after unveiling the new signboard at the party’s headquarters. – Photo by Muhammad Rais Sanusi
KUCHING: Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) is recording steady growth with an ‘overwhelming’ number of new membership applications received in the last couple of weeks.
Its president Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh said following the rebranding exercise in February, PSB – formerly United People’s Party (UPP) — has received at least 19,000 new applications to join the party.
“With a new party name and logo, PSB is now more broadly based – both urban and rural – or even more rural-based,” he said after unveiling the new signboard for PSB’s head office in Pending, here yesterday.
Wong, who is Minister of International Trade and E-Commerce, admitted that UPP was mainly urban-based.
“Whether UPP or PSB, the characteristics of our party remain the same. It’s basically a multi-racial party serving all communities irrespective of race, religion, culture and so on.
“It’s a party that belongs to the people of Sarawak,” he added.
According to Wong, PSB hopes to increase its Dayak members and, towards this end, had been engaged in roadshows in Skrang, Engkilili where 5,000 applications were received; Tamin, Kakus in Selangau (8,000 applications); and in Ngemah, Kanowit where 3,000 submitted their application to join the party.
“This was followed by Krian, Saratok where we also had about 3,000 people joining us. Next, we will be going to Marudi in Baram and then to Samalaju in Bintulu,” he said, adding that PSB was also looking at expanding its presence in Bidayuh areas such as Mambong.
“We can see very strong and spontaneous response from the people at large, particularly from the Dayak people.”
PSB currently has 26 branches with a total membership of 38,000, he revealed. The figure, he said, had yet to include the abovementioned new members whose applications are pending approval from the Registrar of Societies (RoS).
“Those (new members) are being registered. Those branches have not been set up.
“They need to have a pro tem committee, and later on we will submit the committee (list) to RoS for approval.”
Wong expressed confidence that PSB would have more branches in future even though the party did not set a target on the total number of branches.
“Our party, I must say, is growing from strength to strength.”
Wong (second left) greets a party member upon his arrival for the unveiling of the new signboard. At left is PSB secretary-general George Lo. – Photo by Muhammad Rais Sanusi