Two Sabah PKR assemblymen to defect

MATUNGGONG (Sabah): Two PKR assemblymen are set to officially announce quitting the party on November 7 at a function to be held in this sleepy town of Matunggong, in the north of Sabah.

The two are Matunggong assemblyman, Jelani Hamdan, and Kadamaian representative Jeremmy Ukoh Malajad.

Both are fresh faces in the 60-member Sabah state legislative assembly, elected in the recent general election in May this year.

In fact, FMT learnt that Malajad had already “secretly” announced their intention to leave the Peninsular-based opposition PKR at a meeting with his own supporters at his house in Kampung Tengkurus in Kota Belud last Tuesday.

“The YB had told the meeting, which was attended by some 50 supporters, of his final decision to leave PKR and that he did not want his own supporters in Kadamaian to be the last to know about this,” claimed one supporter who tipped-off FMT of the latest development in Malajad’s camp.

Their departure has been speculated for months now and that at one time it was rumoured that another three PKR assemblymen — Wilfred Bumburing (Tamparuli), Christina Liew (Api-Api) and Terence Siambun (Moyog) — were also to leave PKR to turn independent.

However, Jelani and Malajad, are now said to be poised to announce on Nov 7 not only resigning from PKR but joining a Sabah Barisan Nasional component party, Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS) which has only one assemblyman and one parliamentarian at the moment.

PKR now has seven assemblyman and a single MP in Darrel Leiking of Penampang.

DAP, PKR’s ally in Pakatan Rakyat, meanwhile won four state seats and two parliamentary seats, but it has since lost control of the Luyang seat when its assemblyman Hiew King Chew quit DAP to become independent recently.

The only other state seat that was won by opposition in Sabah in the May election was Bingkor through Jeffrey Kitingan of a Sarawak based State Reform Party (Star).

Meanwhile it is also learnt that PBRS and supporters of the two assemblymen are trying to get Prime Minister, Najib Razak, to be around at the proposed Matunggong function next Thursday.

It is reliability learnt that Najib is expected to visit Sabah again around the dates to attend the second Malaysia’s Professors Congress (KPM) in Kota Kinabalu on Nov 9 and 10.

A seminar on ethnic relationship, organised by KPM, has also been slated for Nov 6 and 7 in the state capital, and efforts are being put up to fly Najib to Matunggong, a Rungus heartland, to witness and receive the duo into BN.