WHO WILL BE THE NEXT SUPP PRESIDENT

Mission impossible for Dr Chan

by Peter Sibon, reporters@theborneopost.com. Posted on December 3, 2011, Saturday

Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh | Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Dr George Chan | Datuk Seri Peter Chin

KUCHING: Najib gives outgoing SUPP president herculean task of bringing party’s warring factions to the negotiation table.

SUPP out-going president Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Dr George Chan has been given a seemingly impossible task by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to mediate between the two warring factions in the party.

The two factions squaring off for the top party posts at the Triennial Delegates Conference to be held from Dec 9-11 are led by deputy secretary-general Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh and organising chairman Datuk Seri Peter Chin.

“The prime minister has whispered to me to mediate between the two groups to ensure the party remains intact.

“If there is a contest, the contenders must uphold party constitutions which have been there in the last 52 years,” Dr Chan told The Borneo Post yesterday.

He added that both factions must refrain from ‘washing dirty linen in public’ as it could erode the people’s confidence in the party even further.

Dr Chan disclosed that he met Najib during Umno’s Annual General Meeting in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

When contacted, Wong who is also Minister of Local Government and Community Development suggested that before they could sit down, Dr Chan should ensure that the upcoming party election was conducted fairly and justly and that “he must not take side”.

“It is of paramount importance as he (Dr Chan) as party president is duty bound to make sure that the coming party election is transparent, clean and fair,” he said.

Wong also said Chin had to explain to him and the whole party why he (Chin) had decided to join the race for the presidency after stressing that he would retire from active politics.

“I and the other elected representatives from the party have been told to look after the party affairs after the last election but suddenly Chin appeared in the picture,” he claimed.

However, in a lighter vein, he stressed that they were still close friends though they seemed to be fighting each other.

“He (Chin) still calls me “Ah Tua” (big leader),” Wong said jokingly.

On the other hand, Chin said that he was ever willing to meet up with Wong as he had “nothing to hide”.

But when he was asked to comment on what he said during some meetings with his supporters recently which were considered damaging to the party, Chin said he was “willing to take any consequences”.

Chin was alleged to have said that SUPP had been bullied by other BN component parties for so many years; that SUPP had been forced into a corner where it could no longer retreat and that his team would adopt a 180 degree change in its direction.

Chin reiterated that he could not name his running mates as he preferred the delegates to decide during the TDC.

“I am merely offering myself to become president.

“That also depended on the delegates to decide,” added Chin.

Meanwhile, SUPP former president Datuk Pattingi Tan Sri Dr Wong Soon Kai said he no longer had any say in the party as he had left the party decisions to Dr Chan.

“But if there if there is a contest between Wong and Chin, I think it’s okay and I believed that whoever wins will be able to lead the party well and the loser will not jeopardise the party,” said Soon Kai.

If the battle were to take place in the TDC, this would be the first time in SUPP’s history that the party’s top post is contested.