KUCHING: Seven posts – one for vice president and six for central working committee (CWC) members are left vacant in the new line-up of Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) after the party’s election held here yesterday despite the boycott by Bawang Assan assemblyman and Senior Minister Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh and his supporters.
It is more than a coincidence that there are seven elected representatives (six assemblymen and one member of Parliament) in the group led by Wong.
New party president, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Seri Peter Chin, when speaking at a press conference, did not deny the possibility of these vacancies being filled by the rival team although they boycotted the triennial delegates conference (TDC).
He said these posts could be theirs if they chose to come back to the party, and he also remarked that the vice president’s post for Soon Koh would be ‘a good suggestion’.
“One of the reasons these posts are vacant is to accommodate the existing elected representatives, ministers and deputy ministers in the party,” he said.
Deputy Foreign Minister Datuk Richard Riot became the first non-Chinese to be elected as deputy president of the party.
World-renowned cardiologist Prof Dr Sim Kui Hian is the new secretary general, while the organising secretary post is now taken over by Datuk Alfred Yap.
Former Repok assemblyman Datuk David Teng was retained as the treasurer general despite talks suggesting otherwise. Chin’s political secretary Datuk Sebastian Ting is the new publicity and information secretary.
During the election of the central committee (CC) and CWC applauses could be heard by members of the media from outside the meeting venue, Dewan Saati at the party headquarters, they also heard heated exchanges among delegates with party leaders seen trying to cool them down.
Chin himself did not deny there were heated exchanges of words during the meeting but he stressed that everything went on smoothly.
“We have done this quite orderly. One or two heated words exchanged, it doesn’t mean there was complete disagreement. Nevertheless, the election has been smooth, we look forward this new CC and CWC implementing those measures we have mentioned in our Transformation Plan,” he said.
On the party’s new lineup of principal office bearers in its CC and CWC, he said this represented a big change in SUPP with mixture of both old and new leaders.
“We have experienced leaders like Datuk David Teng who agreed to stay back as treasurer we need his experience,” he said.
“If you throw away all the old faces and put in new faces, they don’t have the political experience to carry the decision we have to make. I appreciate David Teng’s agreement to stay put, “he said.
He added his new team in SUPP was looking forward to work closely within BN. “There is no question of us not working with the BN, we will play an effective role within BN, we will articulate what is important for SUPP within BN”.