Dudong SUPP members must decide

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KUCHING: All the four Sarawak United People’s Party units in the Dudong constituency have objected to the convening of a special delegates conference (SDC) to resolve the rift over the formation of the controversial Dudong branch in Sibu.

The four – Lanang sub-branch, Sibu Jaya, Stabau and Namam service centres – want only party members in Dudong to decide who should lead the branch.

“Their decision must be respected.’’ said Lanang sub-branch chief Oliver Kuo Thursday.

Kuo said there was no need to convene the SDC, which was jointly requested by at least 21 of the 43 party branches to end the quarrel between factions led by Sibu branch chairman Datuk Wong Soon Koh and veteran Dudong assemblyman Datuk Dr Soon Choon Teck respectively.

The party has not fixed a date for the SDC, which Dr Soon said must be held by Oct 26.

The SDC is to endorse Dr Soon, who is also state Assistant Minister for Housing, as the Dudong branch chairman and his executive committee elected on April 30 this year.

In a last-ditch effort, the party’s central working committee has appointed a special panel headed by organising secretary Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui to find a solution to the Dudong problem by Sunday.

Chin is scheduled to meet the two feuding factions in Sibu on that day.

Meanwhile, Wong, the party’s deputy secretary-general, has likened the dispute over the Dudong branch’s formation as merely a “storm in a tea cup”.

Wong, who is also the state Second Finance Minister, said the 16 units under the Sibu branch (including the four in Dudong), had remained united. The 16 units, including sub-branches and service centres, operate in six state constituencies.

However, the six constituencies will soon set up their own branch following the green light given by delegates at the Sibu branch’s extraordinary general meeting last Saturday.

The move is in line with the party’s decision nearly three years ago to set up a new branch in all the 71 state constituencies to serve the people better after its dismal performance in the last state election.