KUCHING: Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) is in a dilemma over its candidate for the Stampin parliamentary seat. While the party leadership has decided on Wilfred Yap to battle DAP’s Chong Chieng Jen, the other top leaders in the Sarawak Barisan Nasional coalition want Yap dropped.
These “top leaders” don’t believe Yap, who is SUPP Youth secretary-general, can beat Chong, who is DAP secretary-general and currently Bandar Kuching MP. In the 2011 state election, Chong wrested Kota Sentosa from BN.
According to Barisan Nasional sources, the ground reports in Stampin were not favouring Yap.
Pressure from these BN “top leaders” has compelled SUPP president Peter Chin and party-secretary Dr Sim Hui Hian to revert to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and seek his assistance in persuading Stampin incumbent MP Yong Khoon Seng, who is currently the deputy minister of works, to seek re-election.
Yong, 72, has repeatedly said that he will not defend his seat.
Yesterday, both Chin and Sim left for Kuala Lumpur to brief Najib on the party’s election preparation as well as the status of Stampin.
Last Saturday, SUPP central working committee met to discuss reports from the seven constituencies that the party is contesting.
The constituencies are Serian, Stampin, Bandar Kuching, Sarikei, Lanang, Sibu, and Miri.
When the committee discussed reports on Stampin, Yap was asked to leave the meeting as they did not want him to hear comments from the CWC members on the reports.
It is understood that the members were split on whether to drop Yap. Grounds reports apparently gave Yap a 20% rating compared to other potential candidates such as Lo Khere Chiang who is Padawan Municipal Council chairman and Yong.
Lo had a 40% rating while Yong had a 50% chance of retaining his seat.
SUPP sources said Yong was still the most “viable” and “winnable” candidate.
Najib-Yong deal?
Meanwhile, Yap, when faced with speculations that he might be dropped, said he did not believe that Yong will change his mind and seek re-election.
“Yong is a man of principle. I cannot believe the rumours that Yong will be the final candidate to be true. Being a man of principle, it will be ridiculous for him to retract his words,” said Yap.
He warned that that any change of candidate at the last minute would not be good to the party.
However, he would abide by the final decision of the top BN leadership, even if it meant a last-minute change.
Yong is now top in the list of candidates for Stampin. Yong has been saying that he would not seek re-election as he wanted to spend more time with his family which he felt has been neglected. But that apparently was not his only reason.
Although he did not say it publicly, he did indicate to FMT recently in an interview that he was frustrated.
Being a senior member and an MP, Yong should have been made a full-fledged federal minister by now. But for some reason, he has been constantly bypassed by those who were junior to him in the party.
He was only promoted to a Deputy Minister in 2008, after holding the post of parliamentary secretary for 18 years. (When Abdullah Ahmad Badawi became Prime Minister in 2008, the posts of parliamentary secretaries were abolished).
Yong, who graduated as a pharmacist from the University of Queensland, came into active politics when he won Padawan seat in 1990. He was appointed a parliamentary secretary. He served the constituency for two terms before moving to the newly created Stampin constituency in 1999.
It is also understood that Najib will meet with Yong personally and try to persuade him to stay and defend the seat.
All eyes are now on Yong on whether he would change his mind as the stake could be bigger and higher for him.
| March 19, 2013
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