Chan's 'en bloc' quit gesture makes waves in SUPP

George Chan's Orang Ulu wife, Lorna Enam Mullon (left in picture below), wants to shave off her beautiful locks next week to help raise RM100,000 for child cancer patients.

This is a straightforward and nice gesture on her part.

But for Chan, a former deputy chief minister, his gesture to step down as Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP) president at the party's triennial delegates conference (TDC) at the end of the year has been intensely questioned by party members in the Chinese press.

Although Chan, who lost his Piasau seat to the DAP in the last state election, does not read Mandarin, he is very upset when he was told that his political integrity is being questioned.

Apart from being attacked in the Chinese press, Chan is also facing the possibility of being asked in court to answer for the failure of the central working committee (CWC) to call for a meeting of the central committee (CC).

A group of 58 members had engaged a law firm to ask Chan to reply before the end of this month on why he failed to call for the CC meeting or face legal action.

Despite Chan's announcement last week that the annual CC meeting, scheduled to be held at the end of the year, would be cancelled, they wanted CC to have a meeting as soon as possible to elect the new president and other CWC members.

The group was unhappy that the CWC, on May 27, had rejected its requisition to convene a CC meeting to discuss some issues pertaining to the leadership succession plans.

“Our clients were furious and disappointed when the CWC, on May 27 this year, had unconstitutionally rejected the requisitions,” the law firm said in a statement.

The CWC, however, maintained that the TDC was the only legal body to elect the new president and other CWC members of the party.

Upset with the group's demand, Chan wanted the TDC to be held as soon as possible, either in September or October.

“I want to see an end to all the unfounded allegations against me and other party's leaders,” he said in an interview with a Chinese paper.

A SUPP supporter, who is close to Chan, said there is no question that Chan would not step down at the TDC.

“I believe he is fed up with the goings-on in the party, especially after the party's poor performance in the recent state election when it lost 13 out of the 19 seats it contested,” he said.

'Chan not solely to blame'

He said everybody seemed to be blaming Chan for the defeat.

“Chan is partly to blame, but he cannot be wholly responsible for it,” he defended.

However, a CWC member, who requested anonymity, said Chan cannot blame the party members for attributing the defeat solely to him.

“If he had stepped down in 2006 or 2009 as he had promised, SUPP might not have lost badly,” he said.

He said Chan should have resigned after the party lost eight seats in the state elections in 2006.

“The losses were signs that his time as party president was over, and it was time for someone else to take over,” he said.

He said Chan again pledged to step down by 2009, but again he reneged on this.

He believed that many members and supporters were unhappy with Chan's “apparently weak” leadership, especially on land and Chinese education issues.

“They wanted SUPP to be more vocal and not be scared in voicing out on these issues,” he said.

They also criticised Chan for allegedly “forcing” other leaders to step down with him at the coming TDC.

“If he wants to quit, he should not force others to follow him. Just look at Wong Soon Kai who resigned as party president in 1996 after he was defeated in Bukit Assek, he did not force other leaders to go with him,” he said.

Chan, at a press conference immediately after the CWC meeting on May 27, had revealed that at least five other ageing leaders would step down with him.

They were deputy president Law Hieng Ding (right), who is in poor health, secretary-general Senator Sim Kheng Hui, vice-president Yong Khoon Seng, treasurer David Teng Lung Chi and deputy secretary-general Wong Soon Koh.

Of the five, only Teng had not confirmed whether he would be stepping down.

Wong, in confirming that he would not be seeking re-election to his party post, also wanted all ageing leaders to resign en bloc.

Chan and Sim had tendered their resignation letters on April 18 to take full responsibility for the party's poor outing in the state election.

However, the CWC asked them to hang on until the end of the year when the party will hold its TDC.