Soo (seated, third left) at the press conference.
KUCHING (March 12): The Sarawak People’s Aspiration Party (Aspirasi) sacked seven members for the recent coup d’etat.
Its president Lina Soo said the members included five full members and two approved members (members who have not paid their membership fee).
“We issued these seven members a show cause letter on Feb 15 and gave them 14 days to respond. We did not receive any response from them so we followed the procedure to terminate their membership,” she told a press conference here today.
The seven axed members are Simon Tiong Ing Tung, Lau Pang Heng, Thomas Kiew Heng Yew, Josephine Lau Kiew Peng, Loh Wui Ping, George Young Si Ricord Junior and Andygie Gines.
Soo thus urged the media not to entertain any press statements from them claiming to be from the party.
She further explained that during the party’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Feb 12, despite having insufficient quorum, these members proceeded with the meeting and elected a new committee.
“The meeting was not supposed to elect new committee, as the current committee which was elected on Oct 10, 2021 has a five-year term ending in 2026.
“As such, the party informed the Registrar of Societies (RoS) on the unconstitutional meeting and also lodged a police report,” she said.
Soo added that as the first AGM was postponed, the executive committee held a second one today for which no quorum was needed.
“It was at this AGM that the disciplinary action, which is the termination of these seven members, was decided,” she added.
During this AGM, Soo said since the termination left vacancies in the committee, new members were elected for the vacant spots and they will continue to serve to the end of term in 2026.
The newly-elected members are Jane Dripin (chairman), Rosli Lambeng (deputy chairman), Hugh Lawrence Zehnder (secretary-general), Lamon Lambeng (assistant secretary-general), Tan Kok Seng (treasurer), Zuraida Jasmine (assistant treasurer), Winnie Chua (auditor) and Jileng Kion (information officer).