KUCHING: The United People’s Party (UPP) is very much a part of Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) by virtue of it being friendly to the state’s ruling coalition.
As such, the party should not be overly concerned about its exclusion from GPS for now.
PBB vice president Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah (pic), when asked on UPP’s position in an interview with the New Sarawak Tribune, said though physically or legally, the party might not be in GPS, “by virtue of their presence in the state Cabinet, as full minister and assistant minister, they are actually already part of us and with us.”
UPP president Datuk Seri Wong Soon Koh, the Bawang Assan assemblyman, is the International Trade and E-Commerce Minister while his deputy Datuk Dr Jerip Susil, the Mambong assemblyman, is the Assistant Transport Minister.
The party’s three other elected representatives are vice president Datuk Ranum Mina (Opar), vice president Datuk Tiong Thai King (Dudong) and Youth chief Dr Johnical Rayong Ngipa (Engkilili).
UPP is a splinter party of Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP), one of the four components of GPS. It was formed following a protracted leadership tussle in 2014.
It currently holds five of the 72 state seats controlled by GPS, which were won in the 2016 state elections. UPP won the seats under the direct Barisan Nasional (BN) formula.
UPP recently applied to the Registrar of Societies (RoS) for a name change to Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) and is awaiting approval.
The Sarawak BN was rebranded as GPS, following BN’s defeat in the 14th General Election at the federal level after 55 years in power. The three other GPS components are Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) and Progressive Democratic Party (PDP).
Karim also stressed that GPS components should stop haggling over rights to seats and instead focus on ensuring the coalition’s victory in the next state election.
“There’s no point of staking claims over the seats just for the sake of fulfilling the party’s so-called seat quota.
“What’s more important is for all of us in GPS to work as a team to ensure GPS would continue to helm the state government after the next state election,” he said.
Karim, who is the Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Minister, suggested that perhaps the best formula would be to allocate the seats based on the ability of the candidates to win seats.
“Of course, it would be easier for any quarters to hit back and ask how the candidate is considered winnable unless after the election results are announced.
“But, there are certainly many ways and means of gauging the winnability of a particular candidate…whether he is popular or well accepted by the voters before we can decide on the candidacy,” he added.
Karim said that before staking claims on the seats, the party in question should have already groomed the right candidate, who was well accepted and be able to serve the people.
“The worst part is when the party simply wants the seat but do not have a winnable candidate to represent it and worse still, only come up with the candidate at the last minute when election is approaching,” he added.
Meanwhile, Karim appealed to GPS component parties no to go to the media to resolve any differences or disagreements among them.
“The media is certainly one of the avenues but it would be best if we can go through the proper channel and resolve our differences or disagreements behind closed doors,” he added.
CAPTION: Use mugshot of Abdul Karim.
