PARTI Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) has earned the reputation of being a party that collects politicians from the political scrapheap and then fielding them for election.

The state-based party that is helmed by Sarawak’s former second finance minister Wong Soon Koh is fielding candidates in 70 seats in the December 18 elections.

The two most prominent names it has taken in are former Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian, who has been given the nod to defend the Ba’kelalan seat, and former PKR Sarawak vice president See Hee Chow, who is the Batu Lintang incumbent.

It has also accepted more than a dozen others, who will be recycled as candidates. They include four ex-Barisan Nasional MPs, a former Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) assemblyman, and a handful who had stood as DAP candidates or independents in the 2016 elections.

The four defector members of parliament are SPDP-BN rep for Mas Gading, Dr Tiki Anak Lafe, who last stood for election in 2008; former Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) Batang Ai rep William Nyallau Badak, another former PRS rep Masir Kujat (Sri Aman), and former PRS deputy president Joseph Entulu Belaun (Tamin).

With the exception of Nyallau, all were former members of the federal administration. Tiki was a deputy rural and regional development minister, Kujat deputy minister of home affairs, and Entulu a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department.

Tiki was not picked to defend the seat he had held for three terms in the 2013 general election while Nyallau and Entulu were sacked by PRS just before the 2018 general election for gross indiscipline.

Kujat resigned in 2019 to join PSB.

The former SPDP state assemblyman that PSB had taken in to be its candidate for the Marudi seat in northern Sarawak is Sylvester Entri Muran.

Entri was also a former assistant minister in the state cabinet.

PSB is sending them all back to their old stomping grounds with Tiki fielded in Tasik Biru in Bau, Kujat in Balai Ringin, Nyallau in Batang Ai, and Entulu in Tamin.

Tasik Biru is one of two seats in the Mas Gading parliamentary constituency; Balai Ringin is in the Kujat federal seat; and Batang Ai in Lubok Antu.

Entulu was the Tamin assemblyman for three terms from 1991 to 2006.

PSB is sending Entri back to the Marudi he had held for four terms from 1996 to 2016.

The two former DAP candidates PSB has picked to represent the party in the elections are Sanjan Daik, who will contest in the super hot seat of Mambong, and Edward Andrew Luwak, who is making a second bid to get elected in the other Bidauyh-majority seat of Bukit Semuja.

Both are also former members of DAP’s Dayak Consultative Committee.

Among the independents in the PSB camp is community leader Liu Thian Leong, who will be contesting in the suburban seat of Batu Kitang

Liu ran for election in 2016 in the adjacent seat of Batu Kawah and won only 1,109 votes against the two giants – BN-SUPP’s Dr Sim Kui Hian (6,414 votes) and DAP incumbent Christina Chiew Wang See (4,329).

For Batu Kitang, Liu faces a four-way fight with GPS-SUPP incumbent Lo Khere Chiang, Wong Tun Teck of Parti Bumi Kenyalang and DAP’s Abdul Aziz Isa.

Aziz is making his second attempt at the seat, which has 20,820 voters.

Sarawak will go to the polls on December 18. – December 11, 2021.