Dr Johnical Rayong Ngipa
KUCHING: United People’s Party (UPP) has always upheld the spirit of Barisan Nasional (BN) despite having recently recommended the most winnable candidates for the central region to the BN top leadership.
UPP Youth chief Dr Johnical Rayong Ngipa said the party is only recommending candidates who have higher winning chances while the BN top leadership will make the final decision.
“UPP respects every decision by the BN top leadership and will not hesitate to offer strong support to BN candidates,” he said when reacting to SUPP Bawang Assan branch chairman Robert Lau’s recent comments that UPP cannot recommend candidates to BN since it is not a BN component party.
Rayong said he disagreed with Lau and hoped that SUPP would emulate UPP which had launched a development plan for Sibu.
“It is not time for SUPP to be engaged in a war of words with UPP.”
He pointed out that former Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem had named candidates from UPP as BN direct candidates and five of them won in the state election held in May last year.
This, he said, should give a clear indication that the BN state government had recognised the contributions of UPP.
According to him, Sibu town needs proper planning to move forward and UPP has recommended just the right candidates to help see to it that the party’s proposed ‘Five-Year Development Plan for Sibu’ can be carried out.
He said UPP’s development plan for Sibu also showed how determined UPP is to serve the people of Sarawak.
At present, it is not known when the 14th General Election will be called. But UPP has taken the lead to recommend potential candidates.
This goes to show that UPP is concerned about the development and future of Sibu which matters a lot more than the party’s interest, Rayong pointed out.
Rayong therefore hoped that SUPP would stop using UPP to divert the attention of the people.
He said SUPP Central Region had five branches and they should focus on doing more for the people of Sibu rather than spending time launching verbal assaults against UPP.
“I would like to see SUPP coming up with plans for Sibu. It is rather unwise of them to politicise our proposed five-year plan for Sibu,” he remarked.
Just recently, UPP made known its potential candidates — Datuk Andrew Wong for Sibu
and Ting Kee Nguan for Lanang. The party has recommended both Wong and Ting to national BN chairman Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and state BN chairman Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg.
When UPP president Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh announced the candidates, he said it was the prerogative of the top BN leadership to field candidates and UPP was merely recommending the most winnable ones.
He also emphasised that political parties should not quarrel among each other, given that the final decision would come from the top BN leadership.
As far as UPP is concerned, Soon Koh said the party would seek out the best candidates and concentrate on building up the confidence of the people in BN.