ROS letter: Why did SUPP chief lie?

Former SUPP deputy-secretary general Wong Soon Koh has claimed that ROS has reconfirmed that the party's convention and election last December is still under probe.

KUCHING: It appears now that Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) president Peter Chin may have lied about the March 26 letter from Registrar of Society (ROS) declaring last December’s triennial delegates convention (TDC) and the presidential election legal.

The question is, why did Chin lie?

Ever since Chin threw in his 11th hour challenge against former SUPP deputy secretary-general Wong Soon Koh for the presidential post in December 2011 – saying he had Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s blessings – there has only been strife in the already embattled party including arson.

SUPP had a devastating outing in last April’s state election. It lost all except six of its state seats. Even then-party president George Chan lost his long-time hold over his Piasau constituency.

Despite the losses, Chief Minister Taib Mahmud maintain the Chinese quota in his Cabinet, giving Wong and his winning peers positions.

But that did not go down well with a faction within SUPP, which demanded that he (Wong) abstain from accepting the post as, according to them, the Chinese community had rejected the party as a whole and it was a matter of dignity.

A political war broke out when Wong lodged a report over branch-level election irregularities in the run-up to the SUPP’s triennial delegates convention and presidential election in December 2011.

Chin and his men won the party polls and offered several seats on the party’s central working committee to Wong and company. But the latter refused the post, saying that the election was invalid as the party was under ROS probe.

The disagreements have also affected the party’s list of candidates sent to Najib.

But with a looming general election, Wong has called for a truce.

Taib-Wong team
He has been urging all concerned to unite and tackle the polls, seen as a death-defying feat for SUPP. SUPP has been allocated seven seats under the Barisan Nasional seat-sharing formula. They are Sibu, Lanang, Stampin, Miri, Serian, Sarikei and Bandar Kuching. Except for Serian and Sarikei, the rest are uphill battles.

But Chin’s declaration (about the ROS letter) to reporters after last Sunday’s contentious CWC meeting has sparked doubts over his sincerity in wanting to unite the party since he has allowed the tabling of two motions – disciplinary action against Wong and whether or not to pull SUPP out of the coalition.

Wong, who is deeply anchored in state-level politics and aligned to Taib, has been a thorn in Chin’s side. Taib has openly ignored Chin and by-passed his men relying on Wong’s advice on state Chinese matter.

Many are of the view that it was Taib who had encouraged Wong to lodge the report with ROS about the election irregularities.

Meanwhile, in a statement yesterday, Wong said ROS had reaffirmed the content of the April 3 letter sent to both Wong and Chin.

In that letter, ROS had indicated that SUPP was still under investigation and that the party could only carry out the “usual ordinary business”.

Calling for a CWC meeting to “oust” him (Wong) and take the party out of the BN coalition is not “ordinary business”, said Wong.

“I urged the ROS director-general Abdul Rahman Othman yesterday to get the actual status of the election probe by ROS.

“Abdul Rahman said ROS is still investigating the TDC election held last December. He also told me the party could only carry out ‘usual business’ while the probe was on.

“With these words, the claim that SUPP election last year was legal should be put to rest,” said Wong, who is the senior minister in Taib’s administration

Transparency important

Wong said to further clear the confusion, he would photocopy the April 3 letter sent to him and Chin and distribute it to all party branches.

“We want this to be done in an open and transparent way so that party members are aware of the latest development.

“I also attached the photocopies of another letter which I sent to ROS dated March 29. In that letter I asked ROS’ advice on the investigation progress,” said Wong.

He said he decided to send copies to all the branches because some branches and members had called to clarify the status of last December’s election.

“Chin said he received a letter from ROS on March 26 declaring election valid. If that was case, why didn’t he photocopy and send it out to the branches?

“Party matters must be handled transparently and if there were new developments, the branches must be informed.

“I understand that the correspondence between ROS and SUPP is confidential, but in this case party branches have the right to know the latest development.

“Chin could have photocopied the March 26 ROS letter to them and allayed their confusion and frustration,” he said.