IF Abang Johari Openg accepts Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar’s offer to not contest in the coming general election, the seven-term MP will be the biggest name to be missing from Gabungan Parti Sarawak’s (GPS) line-up for the polls.

The GPS chairman and Sarawak premier told reporters on Sunday that the four-term Santubong incumbent – he was Batang Lupar MP for three terms between 1995 and 2004 – had conveyed to him that he would not like to seek re-election.

However, Abang Johari said he has yet to decide whether to accept Wan Junaidi’s wish.

Even before Abang Johari made the disclosure, speculations were already rife that Wan Junaidi could be missing from the GPS line-up with talk that he is “being dropped”.

When asked by reporters a few days earlier if the 77-year-old caretaker minister in the Prime Minister’s Department is “being retired”, Abang Johari replied: “I don’t know. You ask him.”

Wan Junaidi, on the other hand, did not respond to messages seeking comments on the speculation.

He was first elected to parliament in the 1990 general election, representing the coastal rural constituency of Batang Lupar.

He successfully defended the seat for two more terms in 1995 and 2004 before a seat swap saw him move to Santubong and the three-term Santubong MP, Rohani Abdul Karim, in the opposite direction.

In the 2018 polls, Wan Junaidi thumped his Pakatan Harapan opponent, Mohamad Fidzuan Zaidi, in a straight fight in this Malay-majority constituency. Of the 33,273 votes cast, 26,379 were for Wan Junaidi with 6,894 for Fidzuan.

In his thank-you letter at the end of his 13 months as the de facto law minister, he listed the passing of the Federal Constitution Amendment 2021 Bill to pave the way for full restoration of the Malaysia Agreement 1963, the passing of the anti-party hopping bill and the implementation of the Undi18 law as his biggest achievements.

Wan Junaidi, a former police officer who had seen action during the communist insurgency in Sarawak, is not the only former MP who is speculated would not be defending his seat.

He was among four others, all incumbents from PBB – the lead party in the four-party ruling coalition – in the state.

Rohani, who swapped seats with Wan Junaidi in 2004, is also rumoured to have offered to “step down”.

The caretaker minister of women, family and community development, is also a seven-term MP like Wan Junaidi, as both won their first election at the same time in the 1990 polls.

The 67-year-old Simanggang native currently chairs the newly formed development authority for the hometown, the Sri Aman Development Agency.

“Stepping down” too is Robert Lawson Chuat, the incumbent Betong MP while the talk on the incumbent Kota Samarahan MP, Rubiah Wang, is that she is being dropped.

Lawson was a first-term MP while Rubiah was a two-term MP.

Prior to winning in the seat, considered to be a GPS stronghold, Lawson was for two terms, from 2006 to 2016, the state assemblyman for Bukit Saban.

He sat out the 2016 state elections to pave the way for then Betong MP and now Deputy Premier Douglas Uggah to return to state politics.

Abang Johari is expected to name the GPS line-up in the next couple of days. – November 1, 2022.