Joseph Tawie
A founding SUPP party member has questioned a call by deputy secretary-general Wong Soon Koh for its leaders to resign en bloc.
KUCHING: Former Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) leader, Toh Heng San, has accused certain SUPP leaders of disrespecting the decisions made by its central working committee (CWC) and at the party’s delegates conference (DC).
He said the lack of respect for these decisions had caused disarray in the party.
“These party leaders have their own personal agenda to pursue at the expense of the party’s collective decisions,” he said.
Toh was asked to comment on the call by SUPP deputy secretary-general, Wong Soon Koh, for the entire current leadership to resign en bloc.
Reminding Wong of his “treachery”, Toh, who is former SUPP Engkilili branch chairman, said: “You cannot decide for yourself that you must remain as a state minister. The recommendation must come from the party.”
Wong had reportedly said that the current leadership including himself, must resign to take responsibility for the loss of 13 seats to the opposition in the April 16 state election.
“I am not one of the four ‘kings’ in SUPP, but was fortunate to have survived and get re-elected.
“Nevertheless, I must also shoulder the responsibility for the party’s loss by giving up my post in the party. Likewise, other top leaders must also relinquish all their posts in the party,” Wong told a local daily.
Only Wong and Lee Kim Shin had managed to retain their Bawan Assan and Senadin seats respectively.
SUPP’s four other seats were won by the party’s Dayak representatives.
Defiant Wong
Toh, who has been with SUPP since its inception 50 years ago, said only the DC and the CWC should decide on whether or not the leadership should resign en bloc.
“Wong cannot simply ask them to resign to take responsibility for their failures,” he said.
Toh pointed out that Wong should also abide by the collective decision of the CWC and the DC, which had ruled that there should be no Chinese representation in the state cabinet.
Wong defied the CC’s decision when he and Lee accepted positions in Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s cabinet.
Wong’s contention was that the Chinese needed a voice in the cabinet to deliberate on issues affecting the community.
Wong has been re-appointed as a full-fledged minister taking the portfolios of Environment and Public Health as well as being the Second Minister of Finance.
But the majority of the CWC members led by David Teng, the party’s treasurer-general, is against recommending any elected representative from the party to represent the Chinese community.
CWC members tried several times to meet to settle the issue, but each time the meeting was postponed by president Dr George Chan.
Chan’s reason for postponing the meeting was that he wanted to “cool things down”.
No Agreement
However, there are now calls for the party to hold a special delegates conference (SDC) to solve the stalemate, but the party did not agree as its triennial delegates conference is to be held in December this year.
Meanwhile, Wong said that now that he is in the cabinet he would try to discharge his duties as well as work for the party faithfully.
He said his focus for the next five years would be to work closely with the party to nurture and guide the new leadership.
“I am determined to fight for the Chinese interest and the people of Sarawak . I want to change the image of the party to gain the people’s confidence in SUPP,” he said.
On the Chinese representation in the state cabinet, Wong said that the Chinese community must not be left out of the government of the day.
He said that even if Pakatan Rakyat formed the next government, the Chinese still needed to be represented in the Pakatan government.
“The Chinese cannot afford to be a race outside the government,” he said.
-- FMT
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