By G Thomas
MIRI: Out of the seven candidates from the Sarawak United Peoples Party (SUPP) chosen to represent Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) coalition in this GE15 in Sarawak, four of them are directly involved in the local council authorities.
They are holding active posts in the councils in their respective constituencies.
The GPS-SUPP candidate for Stampin is Lo Khere Chiang, the chairman of Padawan Municipal Council.
Wong Ching Yong, the deputy chairman of Sibu Rural District Council, is the Lanang GPS-SUPP.
Sibu Municipal Council chairman Clarence Ting is the coalition candidate for Sibu while Miri has city councillor Jeffery Phang as the GPS candidate.
In fact in Miri, the local opposition candidate of Parti Sarawak Bersatu Datuk Lawrence Lai is the former Miri mayor.
Lai and Phang are thus former council colleagues.
The local councils are indeed training grounds for potential new political candidates.
This sort of scenario had existed for decades throughout the cities and big towns in Sarawak.
Councillors are chosen from among the various political parties of the ruling government since the days of the Barisan Nasional.
The formation of GPS by the Sarawak BN parties after they left BN since 2019 saw GPS retaining the council formula of appointing councillors from among the GPS components.
Each of the GPS components of Parti Pesaka Bumiputra Bersatu (PBB), SUPP, Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) and Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) chose who they want to be councillors.
Their names will be sent to the Ministry of Housing and Local Government where the minister will appoint the council chairman or mayor.
The state elections in December last year saw Miri mayor Adam Yii pushed into the public election front.
He eventually defeated Alan Ling of DAP and Bruce Chai of PSB and won Pujut back from 10 years of DAP control.
These councillors and council heads are knowledgeable in local issues and their experience will prove valuable when in their public office as elected representatives.
The local councils are fertile grounds to train up future wakil rakyat in Sarawak.
This holds true whether at state assembly level or for the parliamentary seats in the Dewan Rakyat at the federal level.
