Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud said today that he would only advise and not interfere in next month’s Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP)’s presidential race.

As the state Barisan Nasional (BN) chairperson, he said, it was not his business to take sides in any of the state BN component’s leadership election process.

“It is not within my power to interfere, but I have a duty to advise them (contenders for SUPP top posts) when they seek my advice, to tell them how I look at this spectrum of politics in this country,” he told reporters after tabling the Supply (2012) Bill, 2011 at the state assembly sitting in Kuching.

On Friday, SUPP central working committee member Richard Riot Jaem suggested that the top BN leadership intervene to reach a compromise for the party presidency to prevent a further split in the party ahead of its triennial delegates conference (TDC) from Dec 8 to 11.

Both SUPP’s organising secretary Peter Chin, who is also Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister, and its deputy secretary-general Wong Soon Koh, who is the state Local Government and Community Development Minister, have announced their intention to contest.

However, Taib said, it would be a different matter if he were to be invited to attend the TDC because he knew the party leaders and members were prepared to listen to him.

He also said that it was pointless to engage in a debate that had no factual foundation, especially if it would result in a quarrel among SUPP members, who had said he was interfering too much in their internal affairs a few years back.

Asked if BN would be able to retain its parliamentary seats in Chinese areas in the coming general election, he said: “No, I am not looking that far... let us see what happens.”

He said the Chinese community in Sarawak must think about their own political future and engage in political discussions in the best way that was acceptable.

Riot, who is also Deputy Foreign Minister, had said that SUPP might lose all its six parliamentary seats if the party was further disunited due to the lack of compromise.

- Bernama