George Lo
KUCHING: United People’s Party (UPP) secretary general George Lo views the 10-point request or understanding by Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) as nothing more than a wish list by SUPP.
Lo does not believe that Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) will revert to the old Barisan Nasional (BN) formula of an exclusive alliance just because of the request by SUPP.
“I say so because the 10 points raised by SUPP are only requests based on their delegates conference. Their requests are not subject to any ultimatum, for example, there’s no threat that they would refuse to join GPS if any one of the 10 points is rejected,” said Lo after analysing the SUPP 10-point request SUPP discussed in its Annual Delegates Conference (ADC) on Sunday.
Lo however said now it would be up to the supreme council of GPS to decide on SUPP’s requests as and when GPS is formed.
Lo was commenting on a query if the SUPP 10-point requests (or understandings) means that the party harbour intention of going back to the old BN structure of an exclusive alliance and also what is UPP’s take on it.
UPP before the formation of GPS was just Sarawak BN-friendly party and UPP status is still not known with GPS formation.
UPP has two leaders in the Sarawak Cabinet and all of its elected representatives hold portfolios in the Sarawak administration.
Lo said he believed that the Registrar of Societies (RoS) has yet to approve GPS as a political party or coalition even though GPS has come up with its proposed logo created by a logo competitor in GPS-sanctioned logo design competition in July.
“I have not seen the Constitution of GPS submitted to RoS but I doubt that it would grant veto power to any single component,” said Lo.
“There is nothing to gain for GPS to adopt the BN formula because that would defeat the purpose of leaving BN to form a new alliance,” he pointed out.
“If GPS does not accede to SUPP requests, what will they do? I didn’t see that spelt out in their 10 points.”
On another query Lo said SUPP definitely is keen that GPS be kept exclusive to the four parties – Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS), Progessive Democratic Party (PDP) and SUPP – only but whether SUPP is in the position to make such demand on exclusivity remains to be seen.
“But are they in the position to make such demands?” Lo asked.
SUPP on Sunday adopted a 10-point understanding for the formation of GPS.
The Borneo Post was informed of the 10-point understanding written in both English and Chinese by a reliable source on Monday.
Topping the list is ‘The Chief Minister shall be a nominee from any founding member party who commands the majority support in the Sarawak (State) Legislative Assembly (DUN)’.
The second point says that a nominee each (a current DUN member) from the remaining three founding member parties shall be appointed as one of the three deputy chief ministers, and the chief minister may at his absolute discretion appoint additional deputy chief minister.
It also says the four founding member parties of GPS shall be SUPP, PBB, PRS and PDP.
Currently, the Sarawak cabinet has three deputy chief ministers – two from PBB and the other from PRS.
The third point asserts that all state and parliamentary constituencies in Sarawak shall be agreed upon and assigned to every founding member party, whereby each member party shall have full rights and powers in deciding and nominating own candidates for their state and parliamentary constituencies.
It also says that the letter of authorisation for the use of the GPS logo shall be granted to the candidates accordingly.
None of the founding member parties shall contest in or hold at any one time more than 49 per cent of the total number of state seats in Sarawak, according to the fourth point.
“Appointments of cabinet ministers and assistant ministers, and allotment of portfolios shall come from member parties and shall have the consultation and consensus of the member parties.
“The appointments for various postings of all Sarawak government agencies, municipal and rural district councillors, community leaders, GLC and all statutory bodies shall be discussed before appointments which shall be made only upon recommendations by the member parties,” say the fifth and sixth point.
The seventh point says all major policies affecting Sarawak’s rights and interest must be discussed with all founding member parties before implementation.
As its eighth point, the party wants the administration of natural resources, land matters and award of Sarawak government’s projects to be managed with transparency and fairness such as through open tender.
SUPP also suggested that the intake and composition of civil servants should reflect multiracial characteristics of Sarawak and promotion should be based on meritocracy as its ninth point.
It added that discussion on the new delineation of Sarawak state and parliamentary constituencies “shall be agreed upon by all member parties and to be based on the spirit of one-man one-vote”.
On related development Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr James Masing told a Chinese-medium newspaper that one party can’t be too dominant to have 49 per cent of seats and GPS leaders must learn BN lessons.
Masing said for the next delineation exercise GPS leaders must have the consensus of all parties in GPS.
The PRS president also maintained his views on the setting up of a multi racial party in GPS.
On top of that Masing, told the newspaper that he wanted expedition in resolving all existing issues surrounding land matters and that the civil service to reflect a better racial composition or representation.