Cracks have started to appear within the leadership ranks of the Sarawak United People's Party (Supp), the second largest party in the state's four-member ruling coalition, in the aftermath of the just concluded general election.

At least one senior Pending branch official in Kuching has publicly laid the blame on the top leadership for the party's defeat in Bandar Kuching last month.

Party president Dr George Chan was singled out as one of the main causes for the loss of the premier Chinese seat to the opposition DAP.

Local Chinese newspapers have in recent weeks hinted of growing unhappiness among party members in Kuching with the top leadership over several matters lately, including the choice of the party's candidate Wee Kok Tiong in Bandar Kuching, said to be Chan's main preference.

Wee, 42, who resigned as Senator to contest, was picked from among three names - the other two were Supp Youth leader Allan Sim, a lawyer, and businessman Lau Kim Yong, secretary of the party's Pending branch.

Lau, according to sources, had commented at public functions that the top leadership of the party was to be blamed for the Barisan Nasional's defeat in Bandar Kuching.

He suggested that the party should carry out what he called a thorough self-examination and self-criticism on the factors that had led to the loss of one of the party's seven parliamentary seats.

Furious party president

Malaysiakini

learnt that Chan who had been made aware of Lau's public comments in several post-election Chinese community functions was furious.

"It was as if someone had stepped hard on his toes," was how one senior Chinese journalist who covered a recent Supp meeting described his anger.

At last Friday's central working committee (CWC) meeting, Chan was said to have taken great exception to the comments suggesting the blame should go to the top leadership. At one stage, he was said to have even threatened to resign as party president.

Chan, one of Sarawak's two deputy chief ministers, campaigned hard in Bandar Kuching, going down personally to the ground almost daily, in support of Wee as the BN candidate against DAP's Chong Chieng Jen.

Among other things, he promised government's financial help for the relocation of a Chinese medium school and that the post of senator left vacant with Wee's resignation would stay in Kuching Supp.

His detractors within the party are said to be very unhappy after news that the senator's post may now go to an influential party member in Bintulu instead.

The open criticisms against the party's top leadership do not appear to have ended there.

Supporters of the party's deputy president Law Hieng Ding, who was not re-appointed to the federal cabinet, are also said to be blaming Chan for leaving him out.

When reporters tried to ask Law for comments at last Friday's CWC meeting which he attended, the former minister replied: "I have no comments. Ask the party president."

On this matter, Chan has made what appears to be conflicting public statements.

When Law's name was not included in Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's new line-up, the Supp president told reporters the party had submitted two names to fill the full minister's post reserved for the party (Law and Miri MP Peter Chin Fah Kui, suggesting that the premier had picked the latter instead.)

Later, he seemed to have backtracked and said Law himself had decided to step down, but Law's supporters, according to Chinese newspaper reports, were not buying this because they reasoned that Law defended his Sarikei parliamentary seat because he must have wanted to continue as a federal minister.

Appointments create unhappiness

Malaysiakini

understands that the move to drop Law was to pave the way for Chin ( right ), already a deputy minister, to be promoted to full minister and to allow Sibu MP Robert Lau Hoi Chew, a representative from central Sarawak like Law, to be appointed deputy minister.

Recent events have also displeased Works Ministry Parliamentary Secretary Yong Khoon Seng, who in spite of being re-elected for a fourth term as Stampin MP, was not recommended by the party for promotion to deputy minister. He has served as parliamentary secretary since 1990.

Yong, a pharmacist by training and regarded as a "lone ranger in the party," was quoted by one local newspaper as saying he was aware of the procedures and process adopted by every party in submitting their recommendations to the prime minister for cabinet and other positions in the government.

For Law Hieng Ding, being the party's Number Two and a long-time cabinet member, getting dropped without being informed beforehand was a bitter pill to swallow, according to an aide.

"Had he been told before the elections that his services as a minister would no longer be required, he would probably not have defended his parliamentary seat. And he would have retired gracefully then," he said.

There has even been reports that Law is contemplating quitting the party and resigning as member of parliament.

But he is being dissuaded by some senior party leaders close to him, including Supp Sibu branch chairperson Wong Soon Koh and party secretary-general Sim Kheng Hui.

In the meantime, Chan, probably sensing all this, has promised to fight for another full minister's post in the state cabinet to bring the number to three for the party.

He said he has spoken to Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud who is expected to carry out a minor reshuffle within the next three months following some resignations of cabinet members who have taken up other appointments.

Last month's election results show, for the first time since the 1980s, that electoral support from the Chinese community for Supp, especially in Kuching and Sibu, has declined to the extent that the party can no longer claim that it is supported by the majority of Chinese.

In the two predominantly-Chinese urban centres, the BN-Supp candidates polled less than 50 percent of Chinese votes, in a major swing to DAP, and the margin of loss would have been more if not for substantial postal votes. In Sibu, for example, almost all 3000 such votes went to BN.