The Sarawak Chinese community’s overwhelming rejection of Barisan Nasional in the state and federal elections has come at a heavy price. According to Sarawak’s Second Finance Minister, Wong Soon Koh, the community has lost RM125 million in five years because fewer Sarawak United Peoples Party (SUPP) candidates had been elected into office. Wong said the RM125 million was based on the annual allocations for assemblyman and MPs in Sarawak. He said each current MP received RM2 million a year in allocations while assemblymen got RM1 million for minor rural projects. The funds he said was for community “affairs”. “Although the amount is minimal, it has helped in the community’s affairs like social, educational, cultural, sport, recreational, missionary and many others. “But now we have fewer elected representatives from the Chinese community. “Although politics is not about money, the annual grants have helped in the development of the Chinese community. This is a great loss,” he said. He cited, as an example the Sibu constituency where the opposition had grabbed three out of the four parliamentary seats contested in the May 5 general election. “This is a loss of RM9 million annually for Sibu, and RM45 million in five years,” he told reporters after presenting Minor Rural Projects (MRP) funds to Chinese organisations here yesterday. Poor representation, less funds Currently SUPP has only two Chinese elected representatives, Wong and Lee Kim Shin, the assemblyman for Senadin. “In Sibu, I’m the only Chinese leader in office..it is difficult if the people are not represented in the political mainstream, they would not be able to enjoy development,” said Wong. SUPP is Sarawak BN’s Chinese-majority partner. Under the BN shared formula, SUPP was allocated 15 state and seven parliamentary seats. In the 2011 state elections, it lost 13 seats to rival DAP. In the recent May 5 parliamentary polls, SUPP lost all but one seat – Serian – to DAP. Despite the performance, party president Peter Chin said, SUPP was still relevant. He said the fact that its candidates had garnered thousands of votes in the respective polls was testimony of its relevance to the community. The party’s poor performance has been blamed on the Chinese community’s general rejection of BN in the country. But local analysts however believe it had more to do with SUPP’s internal strive.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Jun 2013 07:33:28 +0000