KUCHING: When referring to the General Election in Sarawak, the issue of Chinese support cannot be ignored as currently the opposition party Democratic Action Party (DAP), which is predominantly Chinese held five of the 31 parliamentary seats while another opposition seat belongs to PKR (Parti Keadilan Rakyat).
The onus is now on the Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP), the Barisan Nasional (BN) component party which was defeated in all the six seats contested in the last general polls to wrest back these seats by cooperating with its splinter party, United People’s Party (UPP).
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) Language and Communications Faculty senior lecturer, Dr Jeniri Amir said even though SUPP faced a tough challenge in the 14th General Election (GE14), especially from the perspective of Chinese unity, there was still some hope following the signing of an understanding last month between SUPP and UPP.
“They have to show good example because to gain the voters’ support especially in urban areas, there should be unity. So by fielding Datuk Andrew Wong Kee Yew as the BN candidate for Sibu, it is seen as good move to convince the Chinese community about unity among the races in BN,” he said.
New face Andrew Wong is the son of Sarawak International Trade and E-Commerce Minister, Datuk Seri Dr Wong Soon Koh, the party leader who quit SUPP in 2014 and formed UPP but contested in the 2016 Sarawak state election as a ‘partyless’ candidate, a prerequisite to contest under the BN ticket.
