ALLOW me to tell leaders and those involved in the ongoing squabbles in the Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) the truth – the people are fed up with what’s going on in the party. They are very disillusioned that people who are supposed to be political veterans in Sarawak are unable to get out of the mess they have created.
Even non-members of the party have nothing good to say about the party now. I must admit that I’m not a SUPP member and party people have the right to tell me to mind my own business. But let me say it anyway – SUPP leaders today must all bow their heads in shame for destroying the party.
Yes, for destroying the party, if not for ‘murdering’ it. Isn’t SUPP on the brink of deregistration today? This is unless someone in the party has the courage to stand up and declare: “Enough is enough, we have to put aside our personal differences because if we don’t do so, the end is nigh.”
Surprisingly, the person man enough to step forward is not the leader of either of the two factions involved in the party’s power struggle. It seems that party president Tan Sri Peter Chin and his nemesis Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh are still floating in mid-air, oblivious that the last nail in SUPP’s coffin is about to be hammered in.
Today, I have to congratulate Datuk Richard Riot for coming out to tell the truth about SUPP for all to hear.
It didn’t bother me that Riot, the party’s deputy president, may have sounded a little boastful with his declaration that SUPP would regain its past glory once he takes over the presidency.
At least, here was a party leader ready to call a spade a spade about the situation in his party.
What did the other leaders do? Chin went around begging Umno, PBB and other BN components for help. Hey, since when did SUPP turn into a beggar?
Perhaps Chin should be reminded that the early founders of SUPP were proud men and women who would not waver in the face of adversity. I believe many who understand the history of SUPP can agree with me that the late Tan Sri Ong Kee Hui, Tan Sri Stephen Yong, Chan Siaw Hee, Tieu Sung Seng and Barbara Bay and others were people who would rather die for their principles than live on bended knees.
Seriously, who wants to be associated with a party whose president goes around begging for help? I heard that many ran off faster than Usain Bolt when they were approached to sign up with the party.
On Chin’s opposite side, Sibu branch chairman Wong is probably more keen to let SUPP die a natural death so that he could register and lead a new party with his supporters. I cannot find another reason why his group is still insisting on the ROS findings on the legality of the 2011 party elections when the party is almost dead and buried.
Given such a scenario, Riot’s appeal to party members to give him a chance to be president does make sense. In fact, he appears to be the only hope there is now for the party.
Let me also say here that this is the first time I mention Richard Riot in an article about SUPP. Why? Because he has always been irrelevant in a Chinese-based party and he has never gone beyond being an ordinary member of parliament, never mind that he actually won the Serian seat for SUPP six times. A deputy minister’s post he held previously was also nothing to shout about too.
Today, Riot is no longer irrelevant and his fellow SUPP leaders and members had better sit up and listen to what he has to say.
As the only surviving MP of the party, he is about the only link left with the federal leadership. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak also saw it fit to appoint Riot as a full minister. He is now the Minister of Human Resources.
It is true that Riot has been politically lucky in a sense. Had Datuk Yong Khoon Seng won in Stampin in GE13, Riot would not have been appointed a full minister. So Yong’s loss was Riot’s gain.
Riot is said to have reluctantly joined SUPP after he first won the Serian seat as an independent more than two decades ago. He must have realised a long time ago that a Bidayuh in SUPP would only play second fiddle to the Chinese. And Riot was correct!
Today, he is facing an uphill task in getting the necessary support from his Chinese colleagues in the party to vie for the president’s post at the year-end party elections.
SUPP is a party where almost 90 per cent of its membership is Chinese. It has always been known to represent Chinese interests in Sarawak. Federal and state cabinet posts have also gone to the Chinese, except for a token assistant minister’s post for a Dayak leader in the party.
But SUPP must face the realities of today. It is a party rejected by the very community it claims to represent. To many Chinese in Sarawak, SUPP is as good as dead. Habis! Kaput!
So why cling to the past when there is not even a present? The future is what SUPP people must look towards if there is one at all.
It must go for a complete overhaul, a drastic change if the party is to survive. Rejuvenation is not the way out for SUPP. It is transformation, a complete one.
Peter Chin is probably on the way out. Wong Soon Koh will likely retire before the next state elections due in 2016. Both are in their 70s anyway. Why the need to hang on?
Richard Riot is younger at 62. Why let his race be an obstacle to him in leading SUPP? Isn’t SUPP a multiracial party? A founding objective of the party states clearly that it was to establish by constitutional means a fair, just and equal society for all people irrespective of their racial origin or creed.
Now, I ask SUPP leaders and members to think carefully and rationally in coming to terms with the state of the party today.
I can tell you I am a Chinese and we should avoid treading on the dreaded racial line if we are genuinely in politics for the greater societal good. Always be humble and gracious and look beyond race.
Riot has only asked for one term as party president. I think he deserves a chance. He has proven himself in Serian too and that is why he is the only surviving MP in SUPP today.
Remember the late Datuk Amar James Wong, who also asked for one term to be SNAP president in 1983. See what happened when some impatient and overly smart members refused to allow a Chinese to lead a Dayak-based party? Where is SNAP today? And where is PBDS today?
SUPP members must learn from history. Ask Tan Sri Leo Moggie and Datuk Daniel Tajem today and they will probably tell you that they regretted fighting James Wong the way they did 31 years ago.
I’m a Chinese and let me tell my fellow Chinese in SUPP this. It’s perfectly all right to allow a Dayak to lead the party for now. Riot is the best man to do so at the moment. Professor Sim Kui Hian is relatively young at 49 and also quite raw in politics. He can be Riot’s deputy and be further groomed to take over in 2017.
One last thing, I must say to Richard Riot. Even as I support you to be the next president of SUPP, please stop bragging that you are the saviour of SUPP.
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