The lone SUPP candidate still contesting in the Sibu division of Sarawak, where the party once stood for all four state seats, has appealed to supporters to keep the spark alive for the party by voting him in.

The party's candidate representing BN in Bukit Assek, Chieng Buong Toon, has urged voters to support him in the coming Sarawak state election to save the only "kindling" left in Sibu.

"This will be an uphill battle for Sarawak United People's Party, but we cannot afford to lose (the only SUPP seat in Sibu).

"The only kindling need to be saved. Can (the voters) keep Chieng Buong Toon?" he urged party supporters at a SUPP election campaign machinery dinner last night.

The party was edged out of three out of its four traditional Sibu state seats which were awarded to SUPP splinter UPP by the state BN chairperson and Chief Minister Adenan Satem.

Adenan has been accused of going against SUPP by appointing UPP candidates in Dudong, Bawang Assan and Palawan.

He has also been slammed for what is seen as humiliation of SUPP and his supposed flip-flop when he gave seven seats out of the 19 traditional SUPP seats to UPP.

Indeed, the chief minister had promised to allocate Pelawan to SUPP, but UPP's Janet Lau ended up as the candidate instead.

'DAP's Irene has yet to show face'

"We are unhappy with such an arrangement. We are left with only Bukit Assek and this is unfair.

"Why has this happened to us? My answer is that we are not strong, correct? If SUPP is strong, nobody would dare touch us," said Chieng, who then appeal for support from the voters.

Chieng ( in blue, with microphone ), who is also Bukit Assek SUPP chairperson, lost to the late Sarawak state president Wong Ho Leng, who won with a majority of 8,827 votes in the 2011 state election.

"I am just a commoner, I do not have a conglomerate background. Thus, I am all out (for the fight), and I am not an army deserter. This is my biggest strength," he said in an apparent dig at UPP, which is seen by SUPP as having deserted its cause.

He then trained his gun on Irene Chang, Wong's widow and DAP’s potential candidate in Bukit Assek, saying that she has yet to make her public appearance two weeks before the state election.

"(She thinks) politics is such a simple (job that she can) gain support by merely talking at the ceramah. This isn't fair at all," Chieng said, adding that he himself had worked for the past five years even after he lost in 2011 state polls.

"What had they ‘ubah’ (changed), they just ‘ubah’ their pockets - RM20,000 allowance per month," he said, mocking at DAP's Ubah (Change) slogan and Ubah mascot.

The opposition lawmakers, who only offered lip service but failed to deliver, should be abandoned, he stressed.

"Desert them, throw them into the dustbin. Give me a chance," he shouted with emotion.

'Sarawak fallen 50 years behind KL'

Chieng highlighted the importance of the development, pointing out that he represents Adenan in Bukit Assek.

"He can't contest in all the 82 state seats, so he asked me to come to Bukit Assek. He hopes the people to grant him five years time so he can claim what has lost to Sarawak from the federal government," Chieng added.

He argued that developing Sibu specifically and Sarawak in general is crucial as the state has been left at least 50 years behind if compared with Kuala Lumpur when it comes to development.

"What Kuala Lumpur has, we want to claim for Sarawak. Flyovers are seen everywhere in the peninsula. They are building bullet train lines now and we Sarawakians have never seen a train before," he said.

He stressed that since the opposition won its few seats in Sibu, the once second developed city in the state after Kuching has even fallen behind Bintulu and Miri.

While he did point the finger at Wong over the supposed lack of development, an event backdrop at the venue says that Chieng blames the opposition for causing the stagnant pace of development in Bukit Assek over the last 10 years.

"We cannot afford to lose another five years," reads the backdrop quoting Chieng.

A nine-minute video footage broadcasted in the room also outlined Chieng's five goals for the constituency, including to redevelop Bukit Assek following a series of land subsidence and flooding, as well as to expand the Oya Road Polyclinic amid complains of long waiting time for patients to be treated.

Chieng also proposed that the area be rebuilt into a high class condominium complex with units given for free to residents after evaluation of their existing houses.

He also hoped the local sentiment toward SUPP, which is the state's oldest party formed in 1959 and has played a prominent role in Sarawak history, would help him to retake the seat for BN.

Chieng believes that he will be able to wrest Bukit Assek from DAP, banking on the projected swing of 25 percent of Chinese voters and the 2,000 bumiputera voters switched from Dudong to Bukit Assek following the recent redelineation exercise.