Peter Chin takes over as SUPP president

He offers a way back to his rival Wong Soon Koh by offering some vacant central working committee slots.

KUCHING: Peter Chin Fah Kui, 66, has been announced as the new president of the Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) when he won unopposed after his challenger, Wong Soon Koh, boycotted the party election held today.

Chin, who is the Energy, Green Technology and Water minister, said he was thankful to the delegates for giving him their trust to continue to lead the second biggest Barisan Nasional (BN) component party in Sarawak.

“I’m happy with the election today and certainly my task after this will be more challenging to rebuild the strength of the SUPP, and I will also go down on the ground to meet with grassroots leaders,” he told reporters, here today.

When asked on the fate of Wong, he said there were still several vacant posts in the Central Working Committee (CWC) and they might be offered to Wong and several of his followers if they were willing to accept.

He said he would personally try to get back to Wong’s group which included the Lanang MP Tiong Thai King and the state assemblyman for Simanggang Francis Harden Hollis, Lee Kim Shin (Senadin), Dr Jerip Susil (Bengoh), Ranum Mina (Opar) and Dr Johnical Rayong Ngipa (Engkilili) to ensure that they remained loyal to SUPP.

He said the new CC line-up announced today was also important to continue the implementation of the transformation plan in the party as outlined previously.

“What is most important is to ensure that the SUPP remains in the BN to further strengthen the coalition at the state and national levels,” he said.

Chin will be replacing long time president George Chan who had agreed to step down to take responsibility for the party’s disastrous performance in the April state polls.

Meanwhile, his deputy, Richard Riot said that his election in the party was an honour for the non-bumiputera members in the SUPP.

He said it was a new milestone for the party and certainly the focus now was to assist the president to resolve any internal problem and to prepare the party to face the 13th general election.

“To me, the party’s internal problem should be resolved within the party and boycotting is not the best way to resolve any problem,” he said.

- Bernama