Sarawak's sole independent assembly representative Wong Judat is expected to find a home in the State BN through the newly-registered Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP).

He has applied to join SPDP and although the party is putting his application on hold, his chances appeared brighter this week.

Malaysiakini understands that the majority of the SPDP top leaders are in favour of admitting the independent legislator from Meluan. Even its grassroots, particularly those in the Iban areas, are requesting the party leadership to admit Judat.

A senior leader of SPDP who declined to be named told malaysiakini today that it would be a matter of time before Judat ( photo ) is admitted into the party. He argued that as Meluan is a former Sarawak National Party (Snap) seat, there is no reason why its representative should not be admitted into SPDP as the party is now recognised by the Sarawak BN as the new Snap.

State BN chief and Chief Minister Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud did not seem to have any objection. Asked on Judat's case on Tuesday, he was quoted in the Borneo Post as saying that he would leave it to the SPDP leadership to decide the outcome of Wong Judat's application to join the party.

"When Taib did not say "no", that is good enough for us in SPDP to make a decision and I'm sure we will make a right decision taking into consideration Judat's popularity in his constituency", he added.

Resolution supporting Judat

Judat was reported to have applied to join SPDP on Nov 11, four days after the Registrar of Societies (ROS) approved the party's registration.

Yesterday, SPDP Piasau protem division chairman Peter Howell Jilan submitted a resolution to party chief William Mawan asking the party leadership to seriously consider approving Judat's application to join the party.

Howell said with the keen interest shown by Judat as well as strong support by the community leaders in Meluan, it would be a win-win situation for the party to admit him.

"Moreover, Meluan is a former Snap seat and Wong Judat has shown himself to be a BN man at heart," he was quoted in the Sarawak Tribune as saying.

Howell added that accepting Judat was also in line with the Prime Minister's advice of accepting the opposition into the BN fold.

Precedent case

If Judat is admitted into the State BN through SPDP, it will only be the second time that the Sarawak BN has gone back on its words of "never to admit independents into the BN" a typical BN election warning to those contesting against official BN candidates.

The fist case was that of former independent legislator Bolhassan Kambar who won the Tatau seat in the 1983 state election.

Bolhassan joined Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) immediately after winning the seat that year. PBDS at that time was only a BN component at federal level.

However, attempts by other independent legislators in the past to join the BN were unsuccessful. Notable among them was former Telang Usan representative Kebing Wan who tried very hard to join the BN but failed to do so despite being a former senior leader of Taib's Parti Pesaka Bumiputra Bersatu (PBB).