After PBDS and SNAP, it’s SUPP’s turn to be history
K Suresh, Horbill Unleashed
Factions including those aligned to presidential aspirant Wong Soon Koh, who pulled out a day ago in protest, say the least the Registrar of Societies could do is to order the party to halt its triennial general meeting (TGM) scheduled for Dec 10-11 until the alleged irregularities are rectified.
Amidst charges and counter-charges of massive fraud and irregularities in the party set-up, the various factions have been making daily visits to the RoS in Kuching. The result is the foregone conclusion that Supp would have to show cause why it should not be deregistered.
The party will probably face the same fate as the Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) which suffered the dubious distinction of being deregistered twice, in 2003 and 2004, and the Sarawak National Party (Snap) which was deregistered in 2002 before being given a new lease of life last year by the Court. However, the party has never recovered and remains comatose and on life-support.
PBDS’s deregistration was followed by the formation of the Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) by James Masing who created a crisis by challenging the assumption of the party leadership by founder Daniel Tajem Anak Miri, the Lion of the Ibans and Dayaks, from 1st President Leo Moggie Anak Irok. At the same time, Tajem was not allowed to register the Malaysian Dayak Congress (MDC).
New party on the cards
Soon Koh, the deputy secretary-general, has on his side 7 key party leaders, all either MPs or state assemblymen. Nothing could be more telling.
It’s predictable that these seven will form a new multiracial-based but Chinese-dominated party in Sarawak. The seven have been named as Richard Riot Jaem and Tiong Thai King, both MPs, and state assemblypersons Francis Harden Hollis, Lee Kim Shin, Dr Jerip Susil, Ranum Mina and Johnichal Rayong Ngipa. Ironically, five of the seven in the ostensibly multiracial but Chinese-dominated Supp are Dayaks.
Wong, also the State Minister of Local Government and Community Development, led a group of his supporters to meet RoS deputy director-general Fison Yahaya and Deputy Home Minister Lee Chee Leong in Putrajaya last week.
The focus of their visit was to list out their litany of woes and complaints against another major faction in the party led by Federal Minister of Energy, Green Technology and Water Peter Chin Fah Kui.
Both men are seeking to replace party chief George Chan who is being forced to step down. But really, the party could not have picked a worst time to wash its dirty linen in public.
Chin is seen to be Putrajaya’s candidate, thereby making the infighting at the state level all the more passionate as few Sarawak-based members want their party to be under Prime Minister Najib Razak’s thumb.
Another excuse for Najib to delay GE-13
The next General Election, the 13th, is due soon if Najib is to be believed. So far, Najib has put off getting his own mandate by latching on to one lame excuse after another. His latest excuse is the need for electoral reform before polls. This is like him claiming that free and fair elections can only benefit his ruling coalition and not vice versa. Now the on-going power struggle in Supp will give him yet another excuse to delay nationwide polls.
Supp could have put off its party polls, like other BN component parties including Umno, until after GE 13. However, party members wouldn’t hear of it especially after the electoral debacle in April last year in state polls and the need to exit party chief George Chan as soon as possible. Chan, whose daughter is married to Taib’s younger son, Sulaiman, had pledged many times before to quit but each time went back on his promises.
To add insult to injury, Chan lost his Piasau seat and presided over the loss of another 12 of its 19 seats.
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