Teng denies

Monday, October 19th, 2009

Teng denies spearheading motion of no confidence against Dr Chan
By Puvaneswary Devindran

KUCHING: Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) treasurer Datuk David Teng yesterday quashed claims that he was spearheading a motion of no confidence against SUPP president Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Dr George Chan.“It’s absolutely not true. We have nothing against the party president,” he said.

On the contrary, he said members should give Dr Chan the opportunity, time and support for him to lead the party.

Teng said this when asked if a motion of no confidence against the party president was one of the resolutions passed during a meeting at a hotel here on Saturday night.

The meeting resulted in the formation of “Save SUPP” committee, which he himself is leading, to deal with the Dudong branch issue and to call for the much demanded Special Delegates Conference (SDC). An SDC, requisitioned then by 22 SUPP branches to resolve the Dudong branch problem, was slated for Oct 25 at the party’s headquarters, but was called off on Oct 13 following the advice of the Registrar of Societies.

This stirred unhappiness among the 22 branches – joined by another four branches on Saturday night – which called for the SDC to be reconvened.

Teng said it was natural in any party for members to have problems once in a while, but this should be resolved through working together with the president and this was what his side was doing. He believed the claim was “purposely created” to cause a rift in the party by a group of people with ulterior motive.

However, he said while this was his stand, he could not say the same for the rest of the other members.

Nevertheless, he felt that even though some might feel unhappy about how Dr Chan was dealing with things, the members should let the president run the party and give him their cooperation.

“People read too much into this. It’s not fair to speculate such things because we are all matured enough to preserve the party,” he said, adding that his side was only concerned about the Dudong branch issue and other matters.

He denied spearheading any move and that his role in all this was merely to coordinate things among the 26 branches.

It was reported in the Chinese dailies that some members even suggested during the meeting on Saturday that the membership of three SUPP leaders “be frozen”.

The three are believed to be SUPP deputy secretary-general Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh, vice-president Datuk Robert Lau and member Daniel Ngieng.

In this regard, Wong said he would accept it as a challenge if it comes, but only if the process was reasonable and legal.

(sumber borneopost online)