SUPP rejects quit letters from Chan, Sim

Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) president George Chan and secretary-general Sim Kheng Hui are taking full responsibility for the party’s worst performance in the just-concluded state election.

They submitted their resignation letters this morning.

The party’s central working committee, however, in an emergency meeting at the party headquarters later today, rejected the resignation letters.

Chan (right), who was among the party leaders defeated at the hand of the Opposition in the April 16 state election, has been the party president over the last 15 years.

The CWC had asked them to hang on until their terms expire at the next meeting of the triennial party conference to be held at the end of this year.

Speaking to reporters after the CWC’s hour-long meeting, party treasurer David Teng  said Chan and Sim agreed to remain in their respective posts while waiting for their terms to expire.

SUPP on Saturday lost in 13 of the 19 seats it contested - 12 to DAP and one to PKR.

The losers include Teng, who is also an assistant minister of public health and environment, in Repok, assistant minister in the chief minister’s office Tan Joo Phoi (left) in Batu Kawah and Sibu municipal council chairperson Tiong Thai King in Dudong.

The party is now left with two Chinese assemblypersons , public health and environment minister Wong Soon Koh and assistant minister of infrastructure development and communications  Lee Kim Shin.

Teng said a post-mortem of the party’s worst ever performance would be conducted later.

“We have a time frame to conduct the post-mortem,” he said.

Teng declined to comment when asked regarding talk among party insiders that the party’s defeat at the hands of the Opposition was a reflection of the Chinese community’s hatred towards Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud.

“It is everybody’s guess. Sorry, you guys (reporters) know better (than us),” he said.

The DAP has been drumming up anti-Taib sentiments, particularly among the Chinese community, with claims of corruption and abuse of power against the allegedly billionaire chief minister.

SUPP, DAP leaders have suggested, is the puppet of Taib and thus dares not speak up on issues affecting the Chinese community.

Following the 2006 state polls, a post-mortem conducted by a public relations firm found Taib (right) to have been the number one reason behind SUPP’s dismal performance. In the election, SUPP lost eight seats out of the 19 it contested.

The report, which placed Taib at the top of a list of grievances against the party, was never made public.

On a related matter, treasurer Teng said the CWC had recommended that the party’s four Dayak state assemblypersons who had won be considered for the state cabinet line-up.

The party will leave the final decision, however, to the chief minister.

"The bumiputras have been our strong back-up support, and so it is fair that we recognise their contribution," he said.

SUPP is a largely Chinese-based party, with over 90 percent of its members being Chinese.

On who should be appointed the deputy chief minister to replace Chan in the state cabinet was not discussed by the CWC, said Teng.

“We leave the appointment for the chief minister to decide as to who he wants to be the deputy chief minister,” he said.

The four Dayaks to recommended to the cabinet are assistant minister of modernisation of agriculture,  Francis Harden (Simanggang), Dr Jerip Susil (Bengoh), Ranum Mina (Opar) and Johnical Rayong (Engkilili).

Teng also said the CWC has directed that all party branches reorganise themselves, including by replacing elder and ineffective branch leaders.

He said this would be one of the drastic actions that the party would take to strengthen and solidify its position.