Finally, ROS shows ‘teeth’ on SUPP discord

SUPP has 30 days to provide the Registrar of Societies with a "satisfactory reply" to the show cause letters to the Piasau and Bekenu branches for alleged irregularities.

KUCHING: Two Sarawak United People’s Party branches have been slapped with show cause letters by the Registrar of Societies (ROS) for alleged irregularities in the run-up to the triennial delegates conference (TDC) held in December 2011.

The letters were sent to Piasau and Bekenu branches.

Copies of the letters were also sent to party president Peter Chin and treasurer David Teng.

According to ROS director-general Abdul Rahman Othman the show-cause letters were issued under Section 13 (2) of the Societies Act 1966.

“SUPP has 30 days from the date of the show cause notice that was dated June 6, 2013, to provide a satisfactory reply,” he said.

He added that the letters were “not a directive to deregister” SUPP, but a “show cause” in accordance with provisions under the Societies Act.

Sarawak ROS director Ken Len meanwhile SAID 14 SUPP branches had lodged complaints over irregularities in the selection of delegates to the TDC in 2011.

The 14 branches which filed complaints were Kuching, Pending, Padungan, Sri Aman, Sarikei, Bintangor, Repok, Sibu, Kanowit, Bintulu, Piasau, Bekenu, Julau and Song.

Len said ROS in Kuala Lumpur were concerned about the many speculations circulating and wanted to “clear the air over the show cause letters.”

SUPP’s internal politics has been on a death slide. Its common knowledge here that the Sarawak Chinese community have rejected the party, although its leaders have defiantly said otherwise.

In fact Chin, following SUPP’s latest dismal performance in the May 5 parliamentary polls, said the tens and thousand of votes garnered by SUPP candidates showed that the party were still relevant.

SUPP lost all except one seat it contested. The Serian seat was retained by incumbent Richard Riot, a Dayak who has since been made a federal minister.

Chin’s turbulent tenure

Factionalism, according to party insiders took a turn for the worse after the 2011 state elections when the party’s almost entire lineup of Chinese leaders, including party president George Chan,  were defeated by rival DAP.

Only two seats were retained by the Chinese leaders. These were Wong Soon Koh (Bawang Asan) and Lee Kim Shin (Senadin).

The central committee at the time had decided against their assemblymen taking up ministerial positions in Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s administration.

But Wong  and Lee, allegedly backed by Taib and Chan, defied the order. Others appointed to the state cabinet were the four Dayak assemblyman from SUPP who won their respective seats.

Continued rumblings of federal interference and sabotage within SUPP led to Wong lodging a report with the ROS alleging irregularities in branch level elections process in the run-up to the TDC.

Delegates sent to the TDC eventually voted in the presidential polls.

Until that point Wong, who was then deputy secretary-general was poised to succeed Chan as party president, in what had been expected to be a no-contest situation.

But a 11th hour entry by Chin, allegedly with the blessings of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, saw Wong and his faction boycotting the polls and declaring it “illegal”.

Wong has maintained since then that ROS must declare the status of the party.

For reasons best known to ROS and the ‘powers-that-be’  there has been no significant movement on the issue until now and the issuance of the show cause letters to Piasau and Bekenu branch.

Chin meanwhile has had nothing short of a turbulent tenure since taking over the embattled party’s presidency in December 2012.