UPP chief seeks Abang Johari’s ‘wisdom’ to formulate reunion with SUPP
KUCHING: The United People’s Party (UPP) is seeking advice from Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg on coming up with a win-win formula to reunite with Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) as ‘one big family’ to further strengthen the state Barisan Nasional (BN).
According to UPP president Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh, there must be a formula for both parties to get together.
“We look forward to the wisdom and leadership of the chief minister on advice (for UPP) to join forces with SUPP in forming a big family under BN,” Wong told thesundaypost.
Abang Johari, who is also BN Sarawak chairman, when speaking at the closing of SUPP’s triennial delegates conference (TDC) here yesterday, stressed that leaders who had parted ways with SUPP could always return to the BN component party.
“Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) experienced this too. This is politics – sometimes they (some leaders) ran away, but came back eventually.
“So come back if you heart is for the people and not for personal gain. You should come back – after all our home is Malaysia and Sarawak,” the chief minister said.
Stressing that he was not in the audience when Abang Johari made this call, Wong insisted upon the need to meet the chief minister to get a clearer picture.
“I need to find out more what the chief minister said – I really need to understand the whole situation; under what circumstances did he say it,” he said.
Nevertheless, he praised Abang Johari for his goodwill and wisdom in calling upon UPP and SUPP to reunite, adding that UPP would look forward to an amicable solution for the two parties to unite as one.
“We all agree that there should be a big family of unity for a strong BN, but we did not leave SUPP – (we) were sacked from SUPP. We never left SUPP.
“For us to go back, there must be a formula. We were sacked – they (SUPP) must come up with a formula to accept us back,” he said.
Furthermore, Wong disclosed that more than half of UPP members are not from SUPP.
“They are new young professionals, doctors, engineers and lawyers who were not affiliated to any political party previously. Even my secretary general, George Lo, was never a SUPP member.
“How can we ask them to go back to SUPP, when they were never members of SUPP?” he argued.
Wong, however, believed that Abang Johari would have a formula to solve this problem and pave the way for UPP and SUPP to reunite.
“We look forward to the wisdom and leadership of the chief minister, to advise and convince our new members, who were not SUPP members before, to join forces with SUPP in forming a big family,” he said.