Bank veep says he has not been lobbying for Sarikei candidacy
KUCHING: Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) member Stephen Wong Kie Yong, who is one of the two members referred to the party’s five-member disciplinary committee on Thursday, wants the party’s central working committee (CWC) to conduct a thorough investigation before taking drastic actions against him.
Wong, 51, who did not deny he was the one implicated, claimed he had not been rallying to be SUPP’s candidate for Sarikei to replace Sarikei MP Ding Kuong Hiing in the impending 13th general election.
“I reserve my comments on this matter as I have yet to receive any official written communication from the party. I only realised this morning that my name has been mentioned through the newspapers.
“I noted that there are diverse views and notions of late about my presence in Sarikei town.
“I was just accompanying the newly-appointed Sarikei District Council chairman Chan Phan Chan together with the councillors and local community leaders to visit hawker centres, the business community and the public in general,” said Wong in a statement yesterday.
In the three-paragraph statement, he said he did not see any breach of the party’s rules and thus would continue to do what he had been doing.
Wong claimed there was no prior warning or notification to him before the CWC meeting, which later referred him to the five-member disciplinary committee.
“I am not sure what is actually going on. But to me, I have done nothing wrong. If the CWC had made its judgment just based on gossips, then there is nothing much I can do.”
Among other things, Chin had said the ‘member from Sarikei’ had defied a warning issued last month that no party leader or member should lobby for candidacy for the coming polls.
“We decided in our last CWC meeting that party leaders or members should not engage in lobbying for candidates, yet this particular member, whose name I cannot mention, went ahead despite our warning,” said Chin.
Wong, who is the vice president of a bank in Sibu, claimed there were some quarters urging him to stand in Sarikei as he was a winnable candidate and a “truly local boy” who had grown up in Sarikei.
“I have not lobbied to be a candidate, but if given the opportunity I will seriously consider it,” said Wong.
The other member that the CWC had referred to the disciplinary committee is from Bintangor. Although his name was also not revealed, it is widely speculated to be Paul Hii.
The ‘member from Bintangor’ is in trouble because he had “ignored a directive issued by secretary general Prof Dr Sim Kui Hian pertaining to the reactivation of Bintangor Branch which was frozen”.
Hii, when contacted yesterday, said he could only comment after a meeting which would be held later in the evening.
Sibu SUPP chairman Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh also said he had no comment.