‘PPP not an alternative to SUPP’

‘PPP not an alternative to SUPP’

Posted on July 23, 2011, Saturday

KUCHING: Sarawak United People’s Party’s poor performance in the last state election should not be used as the basis for approving the application by Peninsula-based People’s Progressive Party (PPP) to set up a branch in Sarawak.

A PBB youth state exco Ambrose Jemut Ukam said Putra Jaya is making a big mistake in assuming that PPP could be an alternative to SUPP in the state.

“SUPP is a Chinese-dominant party while PPP is not. Therefore, don’t use the party’s loss of many seats in the last election as a reason to come in,” he said when contacted yesterday.

He pointed out that although SUPP only won six out of 19 seats contested in the last election, Sarawak Barisan Nasional (BN) still managed to get more than two-thirds majority in the election.

“If the Sarawak BN had lost in the last election, then we have no qualms accepting any Semenanjung-based component party of BN here but that is not the case.

Presence and purpose in Sarawak questioned

Datuk Stephen Rundi
Setiausaha Agung PBB

Presence and purpose in Sarawak questioned

Posted on July 23, 2011, Saturday

KUCHING: The Secretary General of Sarawak Barisan Nasional Datuk Stephen Rundi Itom yesterday warned People’s Progressive Party (PPP) that the state BN would not compromise the presence of the party in the state if it jeopardizes the strength and structure of the Sarawak BN.

Rundi, who is also the Secretary General of PBB,the backbone of the Sarawak BN Government, said the presence of the party here will not help the BN as a whole because the party is not even doing well in Semenanjung.

“I dont want to pre-empt their motives but if it jeopardizes the Sarawak BN components’ strength and structure, we will not compromise.

“They are not doing well in Semenanjung … I don’t see what good they can do here either,” he said when contacted yesterday.

The secretary general, who is to-date the highest ranking Sarawak BN leader to comment on the approval given by the Registrar of Society (ROS) to PPP to open up branches in the state, said it would be better form BN as a whole if the party focuses on efforts to strengthen its base in the states in the peninsula before “thinking of spreading its wings to Sarawak.”