Towards forming a new government in Sarawak

David Wong’s speech delivered on the 21/12/2006 in the west bank of Sibu at the dinner organized by the DAP’s Sg. Bidut branch. (Certain portion of the speech was not delivered as I have a bad flu that night)

We are here tonight to celebrate the Winter Solstice Festival which symbolized the beginning of winter and time of reunion. Of course when we reunite; we talk about unity and the spirit of sharing and cooperation. This truly represents the spirit of DAP, where the party’s leaders stand in unity with their grassroots and the rakyat in general. Tonight we are here in total unity not only in persons but in the spirit of comradeships and the spirit of Anak Sarawak. There is no power struggle, no back stabbing and no hidden agendas for DAP Sarawak but only the peoples’ agendas in mind.
Certain political party shouts “Sehati” without content and spirit. Its “Sehati” is meaningless not only to the rakyat but for most of its loyal followers, among them were Kapitams, Penghulus, even some MPs and Aduns. Its recent leadership struggle showed its true color and that it was sorely for its leaders’ personal interests and power struggle. The recent “show” put up by SUPP was indeed a Class 3 performance by any standard. Its ending was not only an anti-climax but truly buried the spirit of democracy. At first, the leaders of the so called reform camp came out to put fault and blame on George Chan for the lost of the Mayor ship of Bandar Kuching South and the humiliating defeat of the SUPP in May 20th state election. Then all the dirty laundry were put on public display as print media gave both camp the front page coverage although they were non-deserving. The reform camp started in the central region where Soon Koh’s power is based. Both the Sibu and Bintagor branch launched a “down with George” campaign in kuching where many of its CEC members and MPs and Aduns also attended. Altogether, more than 25% of the SUPP joined the reform camp and banners with the slogan “SUPP unsafe if George is not down” were seen everywhere. They called George to resign from the party’s top post or else face the non-confidence motion to be tabled at its 10/12/2006 EGM.

Its deputy Chairman spearheaded the attack on George Chan and he said that George stabbed him from behind that caused him the lost of his federal cabinet post in 2004. He further claimed that he was the one who let George took over the Chairmanship after Tan Sri Wong Soon Kai lost his bukit Assek seat in 1996, and this insinuated how generous he was and how ungrateful George is. This got George fuming and it was reported in the press that his lawyer filed a defamation suit against Law Hieng Ding. According to Law, his intention to bring down George Chan was for the sake of the SUPP and not because he was dropped as a federal minister. Of course, Soon Koh came out and defended his action to bring down George because it was George who betrayed the party by suing Law when he talked about party unity.

When everyone expected a power struggle on the 10/12/2006, Law brought Soon Koh and our “beloved” Robert Lau to a closed door meeting with the representatives of the George’s camp. Then it was all over and the Sibu and Bintagor branch dropped its motion unconditionally. What Happened? What transpired in the meeting? Nobody knows and not even those who shouted the slogan for Soon Koh know. They were all being played out by their own leaders. How that could happen if the leaders are responsible? One Adun was so worried that he told his friends that he regretted joining the reform camp but he was forced to join or else he might be sidelined.

But one thing for certain is that someone interfered. Was it Taib? I would not know but I do know that both George and Soon Koh are merely puppets and Taib is the true puppets’ master just like the SUPP is the puppet of the PBB in the state BN. I would suggest the reform camp to kick start a campaign to kick Taib out of the the CM office and the slogan should be “Taib not down, nobody is safe”. If they truly want SUPP to survive, they should channel all their energy to bring Taib down and not only to bring down George “the brother-in-law”.

Alas, I would never believe in the politics of the SUPP and I never have any faith in any of its leaders to stand up to what the people want them to do. They are all for themselves, the top brass of the SUPP and never for their grassroots and the rakyat. They are all rich and famous while those who supported them suffered in dismay because they might not be able to keep their homes once their land leases expire and their children might not have the luxury of receiving mother tongue education because the BN is definitely against Chinese education.

There is another untold and unpublished story in the saga; I was approached by one person who told me that the Sibu SUPP intended to form a new political party if the reform camp lost out in the power struggle. He told me that they are all ready for war but in the event that George wins, then they are ready to start a new party and came out to challenge the SUPP and the DAP in the next parliamentary election. I was asked very discreetly about the prospect of me teaming with them in that eventuality. Of course my answer was not in question at all. But this event shows us the true color of the SUPP’s leaders.

My dear comrade, our Chairman has on the 17/12/2006 delivered his policy speech that DAP Sarawak intends to cooperate with the right political entities to from the government in 2020. That is a dream that our chairman has and it is a dream for the DAP as well not only to be contented with the present scenario. It is s dream I and many of our state leaders also share. It is like what Mr. Martin King of the US African congress has said earlier “I have a dream”.

Is it possible? Yes, everything is possible with the right mindset and as the saying goes “if you believe you can, then you can”. I would like to call on all our comrades to go for the common goal and to make it a reality. For a start, we must have the following essential ingredients:
1) Self-believe – we must believe in ourselves and our goal and only then we have the confidence to face the world. Only the self-believer is the end winner.
2) Self respect or self-love- we must love and respect our selves and stand guard against any personal behaviors that might tarnish our reputation and the party’s image. Bear in mind that the people look up to us and their respect can only be won and not bought. This is the single most important criteria for any party leader.
3) Self-improvement- we have to keep on improving ourselves and the quality of service we provide. The people expectation is our basic scale and our leaders must live up to the expectation and learning is the key to self-improvement.

Regards,
David Wong
DAP Sarawak Publicity Sec.,
21/12/2006