SIBU: SUPP leaders here yesterday urged Dudong assemblyman Datuk Tiong Thai King to rejoin the party.
BN Sibu and Lanang Parliamentary seats co-ordinators, Robert Lau Hui Yew and Chieng Buong Toon, hoped Tiong would do so for the sake of unity of the people here and the Chinese community.
“We have to stand united if we are not to be marginalised. SUPP welcomes Tiong to return to SUPP,” the duo said in a statement.
Lau and Chieng opined that Tiong had to honour his promise of joining a BN component party should he won in the May 7 state election.
By still sticking with United People’s Party (UPP)—the party that he resigned from in order to stand in Dudong—he was letting down those who voted for the ruling coalition.
On Tiong’s recent statement that he was grooming candidates to stand in Lanang during the 14th general election, Lau and Chieng said the parliamentary seats of Sibu and Lanang had all this while been SUPP seats, not UPP’s.
“UPP is not a component party of BN; hence, its members cannot represent BN in the coming (14th) parliamentary election.”
Furthermore, UPP had not applied to be a BN member despite it continuously claiming to be part of the coalition.
“In the most recent BN Supreme Council meeting, which was three days ago, there was no application by UPP to join as a BN member, despite its public stand otherwise.”