Trouble brewing in Sarawak DAP

Based on its victories in the 2011 state election, DAP is confident of capturing the Miri seat from SUPP, but its efforts may be hampered by the internal crisis over the candidacy.

KUCHING: The sacking of six DAP members in Miri last week for openly protesting against the party leadership’s nomination of Lim Su Kien as the DAP candidate for Miri is certain to have extensive repercussions in the coming general election.

Party leaders in the know are opting to play down the issue, saying the party is prepared for any backlash.

But speculations are mounting and the sackings have garnered mixed reactions from “whole-hearted support for the party’s strong stand on discipline” to “bad-timing as it would affect the party’s performance” not just in the Miri parliamentary constituency but in Sibu and other areas as well.

The Miri controversy dates back to November last year when Sarawak DAP chairman Wong Ho Leng hastily announced Lim as the candidate for Miri in the 13th general election.

He was aiming to end the jostling among potential candidates, as many capable Miri party members including Pujut assemblyman Fong Pau Teck are very unhappy about the move to mominate Lim.

The questions being asked are: Why did Wong hastily announce Lim’s candidacy? Isn’t there a better and more loyal candidate? Also, why are Miri members against Lim being the candidate?

Sources in Miri said that one of the reasons the DAP members are unhappy is that they have better local candidates who have been loyal and yet were by-passed in favour of an “outsider” who is from Bintulu.

Although Lim was born in Miri, she moved to Bintulu with her parents when she was nine years old.

She is now a businesswoman with an office in Miri.

Lim’s quality as a leader had already been tested as she was a candidate in 2008 against Tiong King Sing in Bintulu. Tiong defeated her by a 14,966-vote majority.

Disgruntled members

Miri members believe that with a good local person as a candidate, DAP can win the Miri seat, which has been in the hands of Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) since 1970.

Their confidence is based on the party’s victory in the 2011 state election when its candidate, Ling Sie Kong, beat SUPP president George Chan for the Piasau seat by 1,590 votes.

In the 2011 election, DAP won two state seats and its partner in the Pakatan Rakyat, Michael Teo of PKR, lost narrowly to a SUPP-BN candidate.

The three seats – Piasau, Pujut and Senadin – constitute the Miri parliamentary constituency.

Another SUPP strongman, Andy Chua, lost his Pujut state seat to DAP’s Fong Pau Teck by a majority of 3,849 votes, while Michael Teo lost to SUPP and Assistant Minister Lim Kim Shin by 58 contentious votes.

In the coming 13th general election, SUPP is fielding Sebastian Ting for the Miri seat.

Ting replaces incumbent Peter Chin, a federal minister and SUPP president. Chin has decided to step down. In the 2008 general election, Chin won the seat with a majority of 5,216 votes against DAP’s Fong Pau Teck who secured 14,138 votes. Chin garnered 19,354 votes.

Based on its victories in the 2011 state election, DAP is very confident of capturing the Miri seat from SUPP, but its efforts may be hampered by the internal crisis over the candidacy.

Fortunately for DAP, SUPP also has its own equally serious internal problem.

So the winner of the contest can go either side.

Miri in jeopardy

In addition to the candidacy issue, DAP will go into this defining polls without its state chairman Wong Ho Leng, who is stepping down and will not defend his Sibu parliamentary seat in the coming election due to illness.

Meanwhile, Barisan Nasional leaders are going to town with DAP’s internal problems, predicting that it would only get worse for the partuy without their “lion” leader Wong.

Said Piasau women chief of Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) Kijan Toynbee: “The sacking shows disunity within the party.

“To pick its choice of candidate, DAP has to fight among party members and even to the extent of sacking its party members.

“There are splits among party members and hopefully the people will not give support to a party that is not working together for the people,” said Kijan, who is also a political secretary to Chief Minister Taib Mahmud.

DAP’s supporters and members have also expressed concern over the “crisis” faced by the party and want an immediate solution to the issue.

Otherwise, its battle to wrest control of the Miri seat from SUPP will be in jeopardy.

They want Lim to be replaced by another Miri candidate. But for the time being, the DAP leadership is adamant that Lim would be the candidate, accusing those members who have carried out the protest openly as having “personal prejudice” against her.