Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP) central working committee (CWC) member Lee Kim Shin is leaving his future position in the government in the hands of Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud.

NONESpeaking to reporters in Miri today, Lee who was one of the two SUPP Chinese candidates who won in the recently concluded state election said he would not comment further on the matter as the appointment to the state cabinet was the chief minister's prerogative.

He was asked to comment on the call made by MCA president Chua Soi Lek for SUPP not to accept any position in the cabinet as the party had lost the Chinese community's support.

Prior to this state election, Lee held two assistant ministerial portfolios which were infrastructure development and communications, and youth and sports.

Lee, who has been Senadin assemblyperson since 1996, squeezed through to retain the seat this time with a 58-vote majority by garnering 7,344 votes against 7,276 votes obtained by his opponent, PKR's Dr Michael Teo Yu Keng.

Apart from Lee, the other winning SUPP Chinese candidate was Wong Soon Koh in Bawang Assan, Sibu.

Razor-thin victory

On his slim-majority victory, Lee said one of the factors contributing to it was the presence of opposition top leaders from Peninsular Malaysia who employed rough political culture which had never been witnessed before in the state, during the campaign.

He said the result could also have been due to the emergence of a massive number of new voters in his area.

In spite of the razor-thin victory, Lee vowed to continue to work at his best level to serve all the people in his constituency, which he regards as one of the fast-growing areas in Sarawak.

"Today, I am going down to personally meet the voters and thank them for their support.

"And I will continue to do so tomorrow but I know it will not be possible for me to meet all of them personally. So, through the media, I would like to thank them all for their support," he said.

- Bernama