KUCHING: Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) president Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh yesterday kept mum on whether the party was eyeing any seat in the next state election.
The Minister of International Trade and E-Commerce twice replied ‘We don’t know’ followed by ‘We will see how the ground reacts’ when asked if the party would be contesting in the 12th state election.
However, he stressed that PSB remained loyal to the state leadership under Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg.
“We give him (Abang Johari) full support in his efforts to transform Sarawak into a developed state, particularly his programmes on rural transformation,” Wong told journalists after unveiling the new signboard at the party’s head office in Pending here.
He also added that PSB also viewed itself as ‘friendly’ towards Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS).
PSB currently has five state assemblymen in Wong (Bawang Assan), Datuk Dr Jerip Susil (Mambong), Datuk Ranum Mina (Opar), Datuk Tiong Thai King (Dudong) and Dr Johnichal Rayong Ngipa (Engkilili), as well as Sri Aman MP Datuk Masir Kujat.
Earlier, Wong said the move to rebrand United People’s Party to PSB was set in motion after the party’s second delegates conference on July 7 last year.
“It was suggested that we ought to rebrand UPP, and so a taskforce was set up after the discussion. We came up with this Parti Sarawak Bersatu.
“We had a special delegates conference (SDC) on Dec 8 last year to approve the new name, which is PSB, with a new logo,” he explained, adding the party submitted an application for the rebranding to the Registrar of Societies (RoS) for approval a day after the SDC.
“Barely two months (later), we obtained the approval from RoS in a letter dated Feb 12. So we changed from UPP to PSB.”
He said PSB currently has 26 branches across Sarawak but that the number may go up to 30 or even 40 branches ‘when the time comes’, adding however that this would depend on the response on the ground.