Despite this being the Chinese Lunar Year of the Rabbit, it appears to be an uphill task for political parties like the Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP) to pull the proverbial rabbit out of the hat.

Come Sunday, about 5,000 SUPP members from throughout Sarawak will congregate at its first and largest convention in Kuching to "motivate members and get the party together" to find ways to pull the 'political rabbit' out of the hat.

azlan Since its formation 52 years ago, SUPP is facing its most serious problems - a declining support and difficulty in springing surprises to bring back support to the party, particulary from Chinese and Sarawak bumiputera.

Already, some political observers have pointed out that SUPP was facing a similar fate of the now-defunct Sarawak Chinese Association (SCA), which closed shop in 1974.

Ironically, SCA went down when it lost its Chinese support to SUPP which was an opposition party at that time, before joining the BN under the unity initiative by then-prime minister Abdul Razak Hussein in 1972.

"SUPP is on the verge of sharing SCA's fate in the 1970s after the party lost most of its seats in the last state election in 2006. However, unlike MCA or Gerakan, SUPP still managed to retain all the parliamentary seats it had won previously, in the 2008 general election.

"However, its defeat in the Sibu by-election has put the party back in a most vulnerable position again," said Sarawak-based political analyst Jeniri Amir.

All the 19 seats are in danger

SUPP was given 19 seats to contest in the 2006 state election, but lost 11 seats (eight of them to DAP, one to PKR and one to Sarawak National Party (Snap).

SUPP lost in predominantly Chinese majority seats such as Padungan, Batu Lintang, Kota Sentosa, Pending, Batu Kawah (all in Kuching), Bukit Assek (Sibu), Kidurong (Bintulu) and Maradong (Bintangor) but managed to retain four out of five bumiputera seats: Opar, Bengoh, Tarat and Simanggang but lost Engkilili to Snap.

However, SUPP still managed to retain mixed seats such as Repok (Sarikei), Bawang Assan, Pelawan, Dudong (Sibu), Senadin, Pujut and Piasau (Miri).

NONE However, in the upcoming state election, analysts feel that all the 19 seats are in danger, including Piasau which was retained by its president Dr George Chan ( left ) and their "fixed deposit bumiputera" seats.

"The ground is very shaky now as there is persistent grumbling among Bidayuh members and voters in the constituency over their elected representatives and on how the party has treated them.

"The situation is not favourable as before," said Monash University-based political analyst Prof James Chin.

The Kuching-born Chin, who has written extensively on SUPP, said the opposition was quick to capitalise on the issue such as the unexpected appointment of former ambassador John Tenewi Nuek as one of PKR's vice-presidents.

It is seen as a strategic move to capture the Bidayuh majority seats now held by the BN coalition.

Nuek, a graduate in political science from New Zealand, was the first Bidayuh appointed to serve as ambassador. He served 32 years in the foreign service before retiring in 2004, with the last posting as ambassador to Burma.

SUPP riddled with infighting

While SUPP members can be expected to remain loyal to the party after its convention where Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak is the guest-of-honour, the basic but nagging question pertains to how members could put aside their differences and pull together as a team to recover lost ground.

The party is still riddled with infighting which has hampered its efforts to wrest back seats such as the Padungan and Meradong state seats, among others, from the opposition.

dominique ng interview 010606 gesturing Padungan is held by Dominique Ng ( right ) from PKR, while Ting Tze Hui from DAP holds Meradong.

According to party sources, the infighting has become so bad that the leadership, until today, is still unable to name its possible candidates for the two constituencies, as well as for the problematic Dudong seat.

For the Padungan seat, members of the Kuching SUPP branch have nominated their leader, Lily Yong, as candidate but the party’s top leadership has turned down the recommendation, fearing a possible sabotage from another group.

Party insiders said the top leadership was worried that this group would take revenge on Yong as they did in the 2006 polls, after she had allegedly campaigned against the group’s leader, Wee Hong Seng, in the 2004 parliamentary election.

"There is talk that Kuching mayor James Chan may become the candidate but the majority of SUPP members in Kuching protested," said a SUPP leader from Kuching, who declined to be named.

Chan himself has confessed that the party was facing "some difficulties", in naming its candidates as there were few with potential while some were not keen.

Couldn't finalise list of candidates

As for Meradong, SUPP has a bigger headache as the branch is still suspended due to infighting, while the issue over the formation of Dudong branch remains unresolved.

The Dudang state seat is held by SUPP’s Soon Choon Teck, but come the next state election, the party might replace Soon, who is at the centre of a four-year-old battle within the party over the branch formation.

Soon wants to set up a Dudong branch which is opposed by Sibu branch chairman Wong Soon Koh.

Apart from Dudong, some SUPP members are also unhappy over the party's decision to accept Engkilili assemblyperson Johnical Rayong, who won the seat under the Snap banner, and later quit to become independent, before being accepted into the SUPP fold.

Therefore, it is not surprising until now, that SUPP still could not finalise its list of candidates for those seats but Chan believes that the issue could be thrashed out after the convention.

"I am not saying it could be resolved 100 per cent because as a political party, such problems do persist. However, I believe we can somehow manage to reduce it... some members are already putting aside their differences for the party's sake," Chan told Bernama when contacted.

He said following the party's defeat in the Sibu by-election last year, the leaders and members there seemed to put aside the issue of the Dudong branch formation and focus their energy on delivering service to the people.

- Bernama