By Ling Hui
BINTULU, Oct 28: Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) president Dato Sri Tiong King Sing may request for Sarawakian representation in certain areas with large concentration and huge number of Sarawakian voters in Peninsular Malaysia, particularly Johor.
He said this could be one of PDP’s future directions, since there are already about 50,000 PDP members in Johor at the moment.
“When the time comes, we will see how is the population there (in Johor). Let’s say, there’s one area with a lot of Sarawakians staying there.
“Then, I will talk to the government to consider letting them (Sarawakians) have a chance to be a candidate there to represent themselves and voice out the people’s needs,” he told DayakDaily during an exclusive interview at PDP Bintulu service centre here today.
Tiong, who is also Bintulu incumbent, said there are so far six PDP branches in Johor and 45 branches in Sarawak, with a total membership of about 130,000.
He revealed that the decision to expand PDP to Peninsular Malaysia and specifically Johor was made due to requests from Sarawakian Ibans who are residing there.
“Actually all these plans were made because the Sarawakians there asked us to go and look after their interests. That’s why we go there.
“We already have members there. During the last Johor state election, we went there and helped them to attend to the people’s needs.
“They are all Sarawakians. We cannot ignore those residing outside of Sarawak because they are still Sarawakians,” he said.
Meanwhile, Tiong said PDP would be more aggressive in recruiting new members after the 15th General Election (GE15) since their recent focus has been on preparations for both State and general elections. — DayakDaily
