PARTI Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) has proposed two names to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to consider when he draws up his deputy ministers list.

PRS, one of the component parties in Sarawak’s ruling Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), said it believes former senator and now Sri Aman MP Doris Sophia Brodie and three-term Hulu Rajang MP Wilson Ugak Kumbong, “deserve consideration” as they represent the state’s indigenous people.

“PRS sincerely hopes that they are among those being shortlisted based on merits,” its Youth chief Snowdan Lawan said.

Brodie, who is also the party’s women chief and one of eight GPS first timers who were successful in the just concluded election, wrested the rural Dayak majority parliamentary seat from three-term representative and former PRS man Masir Kujat.

She won by a majority of 4,039 votes in a four-way contest polling 14,131 votes against her nearest rival, Parti Sarawak Bersatu’s (PSB) Wilson Entabang who managed 10,092 votes.

Kujat was a distant third picking up only 5,673 votes while PKR’s Tay Wei Wei lost her deposit picking up 2,021 votes.

“As the PRS Women chief, her rank and file rise in politics is not new to her ever since she first joined PBDS then and now PRS,” Lawan said in reference to the deregistered Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak, the root part of PRS.

Brodie was appointed senator in March 2010 and in her two-term stint, she had served as deputy speaker.

“Another credit to her is that her appointment would partly fulfill the MA63 (Malaysia Agreement 1963) terms where indigenous people from Sarawak, especially women will have representation in the federal,” Lawan said.

PRS is endorsing Ugak for his loyalty coupled with his position in the party.

He is its vice president and the most ranking MP.

Ugak also created history of sorts when he became the first ethnic Iban to be appointed chairman of the National Institute of Occupational Safety & Health (Niosh) in April 2020.

“We sincerely hope that our prime minister will give due consideration to a rural based party like ours in order to present our voices in a truly unified government,” Lawan said.

In the just concluded GE, PRS won five out of the six seats it contested, wresting back Selangau Lubok Antu and Sri Aman, three seats it lost in GE14. –  December 7, 2022.