When the dust settles, be magnanimous, adopt a more conciliatory stance and be inclusive in your actions.

This sums up Prime Minister Najib Razak's advice to the candidates of Sarawak United People's Party's (SUPP) first direct party election.

Najib, who is also BN chairman, said the candidates should close ranks to regain the people's confidence as changes in leadership in any party were inevitable, from time to time.

"The winner should not take it all, the loser should not lose it all because the enemy is the oppostion,and not your fellow SUPP members," he said when opening the SUPP's 22nd triennial delegates' conference (TDC) in Kuching today.

Party organising secretary Peter Chin was earlier pitted against deputy secretary-general Wong Soon Koh for the presidential post.

Nominations closed at noon.

Wong was absent at the TDC after he and his supporters carried out a threat to boycott it, citing "irregularities and manipulations" at the branch elections.

Meanwhile, Najib described outgoing president Tan Sri Dr George Chan, who has helmed the party for the past 15 years, as his friend.

The prime minister, in thanking the 75-year-old grandfather of 11, described him as having an "easy charm about his way and personality".

Chan's 'What Now' book launch

Chan, who is a former deputy chief minister before he was defeated in the April state election this year, had done well, he said, adding that his analogy of likening golf-playing to gentleman politics was intriguing.

    

"Dr Chan will now have more time with his family. We in the BN most appreciate his services," Najib said when launching a book, ‘What Now’, written by the SUPP president.

Chan will not be contesting in the party elections set for tomorrow. He has four daughters and 11 grandchildren.

Chan became assistant secretary-general of SUPP in 1980 and served as deputy chairman from 1982 to 1989 and as secretary-general from 1990 to 1996. He became SUPP president in 1996 and has held the post until today.

He served as the assemblyman for Piasau from 1991 to 2011 when he was defeated by a DAP candidate.

- Bernama