KUCHING: Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) president Tan Sri Peter Chin and Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) deputy president Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing met Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi in Putrajaya yesterday to persuade him not to deregister SUPP, a reliable source told The Borneo Post.
They proposed to the minister if SUPP were spared from deregistration, the party would merge with SPDP with Tiong leading the Chinese wing of the new entity.
The source did not say if Tiong’s involvement in the SUPP crisis was sanctioned by SPDP or was his own initiative.
Both SPDP president Tan Sri William Mawan and secretary-general Datuk Nelson Balang Rining were not available for comment at press time.
The Borneo Post managed to speak to a senior SPDP leader who seemed taken aback by this development.
He said if the meeting really took place, it was a ploy to make SPDP look bad.
“Tiong of all persons should know the procedure that everything has to go through the party including convening an EGM for major decisions. At this juncture, whatever he (Tiong) does is his own initiative on his personal capacity and not sanctioned by the party,” the leader stressed.
Meanwhile, SUPP’s advisor Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Dr George Chan who is also the party’s past president said yesterday in Miri that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib would play a mediator role in looking for the best solution to the current crisis afflicting SUPP.
He disclosed this to the media in an interview during the visit of the Head of State Tun Datuk Patinggi Abang Muhammad Salahuddin Abang Barieng and his wife Toh Puan Datuk Patinggi Norkiah to his Chinese New Year open house yesterday.
“We have met the Prime Minister and he is willing and very keen to help and solve the problem, thus find the solution.
“He would be the mediator or advisor and he can advise us with his vast experience in politic arena.”
However, Dr Chan reiterated that he would not interfere in the party’s affairs and let the party’s leadership come up with the best solution.
On Jan 6, SUPP was slapped with three letters from ROS; two to inform the party that the Bekenu branch, of which Chin was its chairman, and Piasau branch had been deregistered.
The third was a show-cause letter to the party central which the party has replied.
SUPP was split into two factions following accusations of election irregularities in the run-up to the party’s triennial delegates’ conference here in December 2011. One faction is led by Chin and the other by SUPP Sibu branch chairman Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh.