KUCHING: The 10th Sarawak election proved to be SUPP’s Waterloo when it was nearly wiped out with the Chinese community abandoning the 52-year-old party.
It managed to take only six of the 19 seats it contested and four of the victorious candidates are Dayaks.
One of the two Chinese candidates left standing was Datuk Seri Wong Soon Koh, who retained Bawang Assan.
The four Dayak candidates who won are Ranum Mina (Opar), Dr Jerip Susil (Bengoh), Francis Harden Hollis (Simanggang) and Dr Johnical Rayong Ngipa (Engkilili). All are Dayak-majority seats.
President Tan Sri Dr George Chan, who was the deputy chief minister, ended up Barisan Nasional’s biggest casualty when DAP first-timer Ling Sie Kiong turned giant-killer in Piasau.
Ling, a lawyer, polled 5,998 votes to Dr Chan’s 4,408 to win by a 1,590-vote majority. In the 2006 election, he defeated Dr Francis Ngu of PKR with a majority of 3,911 votes.
SUPP lost two of three seats in Miri.
Besides Dr Chan’s defeat, incumbent Andy Chia lost Pujut to DAP’s Fong Pau Teck. Datuk Lee Kim Shin, however, defeated Michael Teo of PKR by 58 votes in Senadin.
None of the party’s new faces made it. They are Sim Kiang Chiok (Padungan), Dr Sim Kui Hian (Pending), Sih Hua Tong (Batu Lintang), Ling Kie King (Meradong), Chieng Buong Toon (Bukit Assek), Datuk Tiong Thai King (Dudong), Henry Ling (Kidurong).
The other incumbents who failed to make it were Tan Joo Phoi (Batu Kawah), Datuk David Teng (Repok) and Vincent Goh (Pelawan).
The Chinese community also shunned Lanang MP Datuk Tiong Thai King who stood in Dudong and “recycled candidate” Datuk Alfred Yap (Kota Sentosa).
In the 2006 election, the party won 11 of the 19 seats it contested.
With SUPP now left with only five seats, it remains to be seen if the next senior leader, Datuk Seri Wong Soon Koh, will get the deputy chief minister’s post.
Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud had earlier appealed to the Chinese community to back SUPP, warning that Barisan would still be able to form the government with or without the community’s support.
The party lost the Kuching City South mayor’s post when the then mayor Chan Seng Khai lost in Padungan in the 2006 state election. The post then went to a party outsider, Chong Ted Tsiung.
SUPP, founded in 1959, was extremely popular in the 60s when it was in the Opposition.
However, under Tan Sri Ong Kee Hui, it decided to join the government as part of the Barisan coalition in 1970 under the then chief minister Tun Abdul Rahman Yakub.
Dr Chan became the party’s fourth president in 1996.
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