Sarawak’s chief minister Adenan Satem has made a passionate appeal to leaders of Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) and United People’s Party (UPP) to stop fighting and start talking for the State’s political stability as both are sharing a common goal of uniting the Chinese community.

 

The two parties must work out some kind of agreement to fight their real political enemy instead of each other, added Adenan at SUPP’s 55th anniversary dinner at a hotel on Friday night.

 

Adenan who is the chairperson of the State BN said: “I want to tell SUPP this. Please come back together and be accommodating. I will also tell the same thing to Wong Soon Koh ( left ) and his team.

 

“We may have failed once, but we must continue to try. SUPP and UPP must strive to talk to each other but not through mass media as there forever will be no end to their squabbles if they start attacking each other in the press,” he said, pointing out that he did not want the oldest party in the state to be deregistered.

 

“This is because despite the big losses that party has suffered I am fully confident that the party can win back the seats it has lost if only they stop bickering among themselves,” he said.

 

But the questions are: Will the leaders of the two parties listen to Adenan? Will Adenan be able to solve the 10-year old bickering that has torn SUPP apart?

 

“If Adenan’s predecessor Abdul Taib Mahmud ( left ) could not solve it, do you think Adenan, a new kid in the town can solve the problem?” asked a retired SUPP politician.

 

Adenan was appointed Sarawak’s chief minister on February 28, 2014, after Taib stepped down from the post which he held for more than 33 years.

 

The SUPP politician traced the crisis which began in 2004 when the then SUPP President George Chan failed to honour his promise to recommend Law Hieng Ding, the MP for Sarikei to be a federal minister. Instead Chan recommended Peter Chin, the MP for Miri, for the federal post.

 

Law, who was the incumbent minister of science, technology and environment, had indicated that he would not contest for the 2004 parliamentary election.

 

But Chan not only insisted that he (Law) must contest as the Sarikei seat was in danger of losing to the opposition if another SUPP candidate were to contest, and promised to recommend him to continue as federal minister.

 

Although Law won the seat, Chan according to the retired SUPP leader, failed to honour his word when he recommended Chin to the federal cabinet.

Chan’s action angered not only Law, but also the Foochow members of the party, the majority of them timber tycoons, developers and owners of oil palm estates.

 

Since then, the Foochow group in the party had designed a plot to topple Chan in the next party’s triennial general meeting (TGM).

In the process, the Foochow group led by Law and later by Wong Soon Koh and the non-Foochow faction formed several branches in order to out-do each other. One of the branches formed by the pro-Chan group was Dudong.

 

Dr. Soon Choon Teck was tasked by Chan to form the branch out of the Sibu branch of which Wong Soon Koh was the chairperson.

Wong strongly objected to the formation of the branch as it would mean extra delegates for Chan in the coming TGM.

 

Animousity and enmity

The bitter dispute over this had created animosity and enmity between the Foochow and non-Foochow groups, resulting in the loss of the Sibu parliamentary seat in a by-election in May 2010 and the loss of three state seats (Bukit Assek, Dudong, and Pelawan) in the 2011 state elections as well as 10 other state seats.

 

The bickering in the party was getting from bad to worse when Wong’s faction boycotted the December 2011 TGM, alleging irregularities in party’s elections which saw Peter Chin ( right ) being elected as president.

 

Due to the worsening crisis in SUPP, it again suffered a setback in the 2013 parliamentary election where it lost six of the seven parliamentary seats to the opposition. In Sibu, it lost Sibu and Lanang with devastating majorities.

 

In the mean time, Wong’s faction which included five other elected representatives namely Lee Kim Shin (Senadin), Ranum Mina (Opar), Jerip Susil (Bengoh), Francis Harden (Simanggang) and Johnichal Rayong (Engkilili) had complained to the Registrar of Societies about the election irregularities.

 

As they did not recognise the election of Chin and Central Working Committee (CWC), they refused to attend any CWC meeting or any function organised by the party.

Because of their non-attendance  and other activities which were organised by Wong that SUPP considered ‘prejudicial’ to the interest of the party, they were therefore given show-cause letters why action should not be taken against them.

 

Wong, who is the minister for local government and community development and former chairperson of SUPP Sibu branch knew the stake was against him and his faction, so on July 14, 2014, they formed their own political party known as United People’s Party (UPP) in order for them to carry out their political struggle. 

Harden and Lee refused to join them.

 

But the formation of UPP and Parti Tenaga Rakyat Sarawak (Teras) and their intention to join the BN has created another problem for Adenan in the face of strong opposition from SUPP, SPDP and other BN component parties.

 

“In fact the formation of Parti Tenaga Rakyat Sarawak (Teras) and UPP whose leaders are state ministers and assistant ministers is creating more trouble for Adenan,” said a political observer.

 

Social Development Minister William Mawan Ikom had resigned from SPDP and became the president of Teras.

 

Big problem

Adenan admitted that he is facing a big problem, but promised to settle the issue involving the two parties in the next one or two years.

 

Many people interpreted Adenan’s strategy as to allow the ministers and assistant minister from Teras and UPP to hold on to their ministerial positions until the next state election that may be called later next year. The state election is due in mid-June 2016.

 

He cannot simply accept Teras and UPP to join BN without incurring the wrath of other BN component parties nor can he leave the elected representatives in Teras and UPP outside the family of BN.

 

“This is Adenan’s dilemma,” said a political observer.

 

However, to solve this problem, Adenan may allow a free fight between SPDP and Teras in eight state seats and between SUPP and UPP in 19 seats.

 

“Which party loses, will be out of BN, and which party wins will be in BN. For BN, it has nothing to lose,” said the political observer.

 

He believes this is likely to be the solution to be taken by Adenan.