Sarawak United People's Party (Supp) chief Dr George Chan, 70, appears to be facing mounting pressure within the party for him to step aside and pave the way for a younger leader.

Already faced with the threat of a no-confidence motion against him by his deputy Law Hieng Ding, the party's Sibu branch Youth wing has publicly asked him to step down as chairperson of the 'Forward Team' and accept an advisory role together with Law and let the team's deputy chairperson Wong Soon Koh take the party forward to the next elections.

A section of the party's Bintulu branch has also made a similar call.

Top party leaders recently reached a consensus on a time-table for Chan, who is also Sarawak deputy chief minister, to step down from the party post by 2008.

However, a staunch supporter of Chan, who has been leading the party since 1997, told malaysiakini that the veteran politician is resisting the forces calling for him to quit.

Many Supp leaders, including Law, are at loggerheads with Chan and see him as a political liability should he continue to lead the party to the next parliamentary elections which could be held next year.

"They see him as a great liability and they don't want him around when the party has to go back to the electorate to renew their mandate," one of them told malaysiakini.

Chan tightlipped

Party secretary-general Sim Kheng Hui, however, came to the defence of the party president, saying he (Chan) should be allowed to serve his full three-year term as president till 2008 and that it would be unconstituitional and illegal for him (Chan) to name his successor at this stage without going through the democratic process of elections.

Chan and Wong are the party's two full ranking members of the state cabinet. The younger Wong is Sibu branch chairperson and second minister of finance and minister of urbanisation and tourism.

By appointing him deputy to Chan in the Forward Team, he (Wong) is in fact by-passing several senior party members, but he appears the clear leader to succeed in the event the president decides to step down even before Chan's present term ends.

So far Chan has remained tightlipped but he will not be able escape criticism of his leadership when delegates meet at a special conference on Dec 10. The party's 110-member central committee (CC) will meet the day before.