Rayong (second right) is seen during the event at Lipat Lama longhouse.
ENGKILILI: Community leaders here have called on the Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) to stay out of the area.
According to them, the people have unanimously chosen the United People’s Party (UPP) as their voice in the government.
SUPP vice-president Datuk Francis Harden Hollis is rumoured to have been promoting party members as potential Barisan Nasional (BN) candidates for Engkilili and has reportedly said UPP is an opposition party.
According to councillor Nyambong Maweng from Memaloi, top BN leaders met with Harden and Engkilili assemblyman Dr Johnical Rayong Ngipa during the Tidal Bore Festival last month.
“I saw photographs of the Chief Minister (Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem), Deputy Chief Minister (Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Alfred Jabu Numpang) and other top BN leaders together with Rayong and Harden.
“I understand that they were being told not to fight with each other,” he said.
Nyambong claimed, as such, Harden has defied the directives of the top BN leaders with his campaigning.
Tuai Rumah Bulie Atin from Lidong Pandak longhouse called on Harden to concentrate on his own area of Simanggang.
“I don’t see why he has the need to come here and try to create confusion in Engkilili. The people here are not blind as they know who should represent them, which in this case is Rayong,” he said.
Bulie said if Harden really cared about people here, he should have come more often years ago and not just recently.
According to councillor Nyanau Ramba from Pematoh, Harden and SUPP are disrupting the harmony of the BN coalition in the state.
“This is not what we want in Engkilili. We have our own preferred candidate and Harden should respect that and not insult us by pushing their so-called recommended candidates down our throats,” he said.
The local community leaders spoke to thesundaypost during a meet-the-people event officiated at by Rayong at Lipat Lama longhouse.
Co-incidentally, Harden held another event simultaneously just a few hundred metres away at Lipat Ulu longhouse.