KUCHING: SUPP president Tan Sri Peter Chin believes Parti Tenaga Rakyat Sarawak (Teras) will not be accepted into Barisan Nasional (BN) given that several BN component parties have openly expressed objection.
Speaking to reporters here yesterday, he said unanimity is a must when it comes to absorbing a new BN component party and in the case of Teras, eight BN component parties had expressed their disapproval.
“In the first place, I don’t think so. If you go by the constitution of BN, you must have unanimity. If you do not have unanimous consent from every BN
party, you cannot get it. So we are confident that will not come about.
“Eight BN parties have expressed their views and I agree with them, that there are a lot of BN leaders who feel that we should not be accepting new members just for the sake of accepting.
“I must tell you there is a long queue to get into BN, but every time we meet, we rejected because some parties cannot agree,” he said after chairing the central working committee (CWC) meeting and giving a briefing at the party’s headquarters here.
The eight BN component parties reported by a Chinese national daily to have sounded their disapproval were MCA, Gerakan, MIC, PRS, SPDP, SUPP, Upko and LDP.
Chin said SUPP’s disapproval of Teras was not going against Chief Minister Tan Sri Datuk Amar Adenan Satem, who he believed had never said or agreed to accept Teras.
“No, Adenan never said that. Who told you Adenan said that?” quipped Chin when asked if he was going against Adenan after saying the party did not welcome the new party into BN.
When pressed, Chin said: “Yea, he acknowledges that this group from Teras wants to pay a courtesy call on him to express their support for him and BN. What is wrong with that?
“He has never told you people that he has accepted Teras into BN. So you people, the press simply misinterpreted him, that is what he told me.”
To another question, he said: “No, he did not say that. He told me he didn’t. From my understanding from him, he just acknowledges that they are very good. You (those from Teras) support BN, thank you.”
Chin said SUPP would also seek assistance from other BN members to reject Teras as he pointed out: “I think it is natural to lobby for support.”
Asked when SUPP would meet up with Adenan, Chin said: “I just met him yesterday in Miri. I cannot tell you what he told me. That is not fair to him, but my understanding is that he has never said that he will allow Teras to ‘masuk’ (join) BN.”
Noting that Teras had met Adenan to brief him on what had happened, Chin said SUPP had regular meetings with the prime minister and “when BN meets, we have a chance to talk to him otherwise we can see him personally.”
He believed the prime minister’s political secretaries had kept the top leader in the loop regarding what was happening in Sarawak.
He was quick to add: “If he wants further briefing from us, of course we are very happy to do so.”
In light of Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh quitting the party, Chin said the party would consolidate and start with restructuring its branches.
He, however, admitted the party might not have a good tally as far as its membership is concerned. Hence, all branches would be expected to conduct checks to find out how many members had decided to quit SUPP.
“So we will ask the branches to check who and who has left because as I told the briefing just now, Soon Koh left without even a letter of resignation.
“If he did not have a press conference (together with other 10 elected representatives on joining Teras last Thursday), we would not know that he has left.”