How UMNO actually remained in power from 1971

By Voon Lee Shan

There is no reason why SUPP should still remain as a partner of the Barisan Nasional government when the Party itself could not protect its own interest and had no or very little bargaining power within the government itself. After SUPP formed the State government with Parti Bumiputra on Tuesday 7th July, 1970, their left wing then accused the leadership of selling out the Party, which caused their then Party Chairman during the 7th Delegate Conference held on December, 1970 to deny this and said that they joined the government as co-equals, but, how correct was this? We have witness that all these years SUPP’s influence in BN government, both at the State and Federal levels, had not only dwindled, but, also showed that the Party could no more advance and protect the interest of its own Party members and supporters.

SUPP’s decision in joining the Federal government on 11 February, 1971 saw the amendment of the Federal Constitution by Tun Razak’s government and this was a big blow to Malaysians who believed in equal economic opportunity to all races, fairness in promotion and recruitment into the civil service and equal opportunity to pursue education. These three fields of opportunities were of paramount importance in a developing country and in Malaysia, the UMNO led government had exploited this to UMNO’s advantage at the expense of many other races and also at the expense of many bumiputera themselves. If one had no connection with people at the top, it seemed that job and business opportunities were scare and licences applied for not only delayed but, a lot of “funny things” went on before one could get them. Now, we could see there is a trend towards a one race civil service due to four to one ratio policy in recruitment policy. This policy was revealed in a book by a SUPP politician.

By joining Tun Razak’s government, SUPP’s five Members of Parliament at that time allowed the bare two-thirds majority needed in helping UMNO led government to amend the Federal Constitution prohibiting any questioning or criticism of the special position of the malays and the granting of citizenship rights to immigrants. IF SUPP had not joined Tun Razak’s government, the UNMO led government at that time, could not not the two third majority in Parliament to amend the Federal Constitution. After the amendment, even Members of Parliament could not refer these matters in Parliament. So SUPP helped UMNO to achieve what UMNO wanted.

The amendment of the Federal Constitution had made Sabah and Sarawak a heaven for immigrants from neighbouring countries and now Sabah and Sarawak are faced with the problems of illegal immigrants and rising crimes. SUPP leaders now condemned the Police for its ineffectiveness in curbing crimes and many accused that foreigners caused crime rates to rise up sharply. Many of these foreigners later on managed to be issued with the Malaysian identity cards. People in the streets cursed the government, but, who in actual fact had allowed this to happen? Had not SUPP played a part to make this happened?

Being helpless, SUPP had also allowed leaders of UMNO led government to manipulate the New Economic Policy to the advantage of certain group of people and we could in recent years heard dissent voices against the implementation of the New Economic Policy which tend to benefit the few people at the Corridors of Power. The amendments to the Federal Constitution blend well with the Economic Policy to such an extent that no one should voice any dissatisfaction about these. Dayaks whom SUPP had once aggressively championed are still left far behind in terms of economic advancement and opportunities. Likewise, the many malays who have no connections with PBB and UMNO only had to be satisfied to stay at their kampong lands, hoping that God would be kind to keep them healthy always. The rich malays are very rich and are confined to the very few although the living standard of many malays are much better now.

Deterioration of SUPP’s Influence began With Rahman Yakub’s Time

During the time of Rahman Yakub, it was an open secret that SUPP was not happy with the leadership of Rahman Yakub as it was said that many important decisions were made without reference or discussions with SUPP. It was said in 1971 there was a party resolution that SUPP could leave the coalition government if it was not happy. There could not be such a resolution if there was no suspicion or unhappiness about the matter. It was also that in mid 1977 some SUPP’s branches passed resolutions calling SUPP to leave the BN government if many issues, including land issues of the Chinese community, which SUPP raised could not be solved in its favour (see International Times 16 October, 1977). Until now, some 38 years in the government, SUPP could not solve this land problem for the Chinese community! What a long wait! Should we wait for another 38 years when Perak government could do this within weeks! Now, Penang government under Pakatan Rakyat also moved fast in giving better land rights protection to Penang people.

The Peace Agreement at Sri Aman on 4th March 1974 also saw SUPP’s Stephen Yong conspicuously absent in the signing ceremony although Stephen Yong was said involved in the negotiations for the peace agreement. It was said Bong Kee Chok even wrote a letter to Stephen Yong of the possible surrender of himself and his jungle comrades. There was no reason why Stephen Yong was not around when 482 of these new found friends who returned to society met state dignitaries to sign the Peace Agreement. The issue was very important to SUPP and the Chinese community. Instead, the issue brought prominence to Rahman Yakub and SUPP was sidelined. This showed that SUPP had very little influence in the government and it was not something that SUPP had wanted to be.

The Party’s influence later on further deteriorated as could be seen from the allocation of seats during the 1974 General Election. SUPP was only allocated 16 state constituency and 9 parliamentary constituency seats to contest while Parti Bumiputera which later merged with Parti Pesaka on 5th January, 1973 to form PBB was given 32 state and 15 parliamentary seats respectively.

In 1970 Rahman Yakub’s Party only won 12 seats while SUPP won 11 state seats, but, PBB got many more seats than SUPP to contest in 1974. Did SUPP not learnt from this as a big slap on its face? Before joining the alliance government in 1970, SUPP was able to contest 19 out of the 24 parliamentary seats for grab and 30 state seats out of 48.

To add salt to the wounds, when Stephen Yong lost to a political unkown in the Bandar Kuching Timur seat in 1974, the State BN led by Rahman Yakub disagreed to a proposed by-election by SUPP by having a SUPP state assembly resign from his seat so that Stephen Yong could contest and if won could go back to the State Cabinet.

This already showed that SUPP had already begun their role of a crying baby in the alliance government. SUPP should get the cue of the defeat of Stephen Yong that Sarawakians, especially, the Chinese community at that time had already sent a strong signal of their unhappiness of SUPP joining the government. Many already felt that the party had “sold out” and its leaders entirely self-serving. To many, SUPP had joined the wrong team!

During the 1974 state election, it was realized that although Stephen Yong was a Deputy Chief Minister at that time, Stephen Yong was unable to solve the intrusion of foreign fishermen into Sarawak waters. The people of Bintawa at that time was very angry because although SUPP was in the government, SUPP was helpless and could not do much against foreign fishing vessels competing with local fishermen. I still could remember that a

Thai vessel caught at that time was subsequently released which brought much protests from the fishing community in Bintawa.

In 1978 Parliamentary election, there was no reason for Tun Hussein Onn to turn down the request of SUPP to use its own three ring symbol in the election. This was also another slap on SUPP’s face and to cause further pain to SUPP why should SUPP remained silent when in 1974 it was only allocated 7 parliamentary constituency seats to contest, a short of 2 seats from 1974. The Party was a lame duck in seat negotiations and this showed that the Party’s influence declined each year within the BN. Not only that, the Chinese community in Sarawak again sent a signal to SUPP that their stay in BN government was not what the people wanted when SUPP was made to lose the Miri Parliamentary seat to Raymond Szetu of SAPO.

The Miri people was not happy when Miri which was under SUPP could not all the years voiced better protection of our Sarawak’s oil rights. SAPO had asked for 50% of oil revenue, but, SUPP had to keep quiet and was satisfied with the payment of 5% royalty by the Federal government as allowed under the Petroleum Development Act 1974 and until now this matter had remained the same. Soon Koh was cornered by me in the Dewan, and could not give me a straight answer about increment of oil royalties for Sarawak. Should SUPP wait until the oil well in Miri dries up before asking for more from the Federal government? SUPP should make a demand as Miri has been under SUPP since independence. By the time the Federal government wants to give our oil royalty 100% back it would be useless if our oil well dries up. If we could get our oil back, Sarawakians, especially, Miri people would definitely be happier as oil revenue could be used to accelerate development in the State.

When unhappiness about SUPP’s participation in the government was raised up in the December 1978 Delegates Meeting, SUPP should have at that time begun to think seriously of the ill-treatment it got from the BN government and should leave the government gracefully and fight for their rights from outside. It was clear that many of its Party members were already not happy and at the same time, their Dayak leaders were also a disgruntled lot because the Party no more could protect their interests in the government. The end result of SUPP’s politics is that, Dayaks are now parked or split into many groups or parties. Previously, SUPP was the Party that the Dayak was looking at to protect their interests. Now, Dayaks are still looking for a strong leader to re-group them and all these years Dayaks are left in the wilderness, although, BN claimed that the Dayaks had been in their good hands. Think! How many percent of Dayak people had achieved university education and how many percent Dayaks are millionaires ever since SUPP could no more be their political umbrella? The Dayaks in the Party had accused SUPP of neglecting them since Charles Linang crossed over to another political party in its early days. Likewise SUPP’s Dayak parliamentarian, Sinyium Ak Matit, resigned from the seat it won in 1970.

I could not understand why SUPP was always clinging on power despite the Party could not do much to protect its interest. Ever since SUPP lost its Dayak base, SUPP had tried to consolidate its power and influence in Chinese dominant areas, but, when the Merdeka University issue was brought to Parliament, SUPP’s six Members of Parliament at that time betrayed the trust of the Malaysian Chinese community by voting against the setting up of the Merdeka University! SUPP leaders at that time, like, the present one, had just wanted to enjoy the privileges of being in the government, then decided to betray the Chinese community by not backing the motion put by DAP in Parliament although SUPP together with DAP were among the 4, 234 Chinese organizations who in early 1978 signed a Memorandum to the King seeking His Majesty’s consent for the setting of the Merdeka University.

SUPP under Taib Mahmud

Taib Mahmud came into power in the State in 1981, replacing Tun Rahman Yakub and SUPP claimed they could work well with Taib to protect their party’s interest. So far, it looked good, but, in reality, the same story goes on! SUPP continued to rubbed shoulders with BN political colleagues and although in 1982 the Education Minister was from PBB, a close partner of SUPP in Sarawak, SUPP could not stop to get the Education Minister from implementing the 3M syllabus in our education system. SUPP should realize that the voters had taught it a good lesson again in 1982 Parliamentary election and had wanted them to rethink of their position in the BN government when DAP through Sim Kwang Yang and Ling Sie Ming won in Bandar Kuching and Bandar Sibu and SUPP also nearly lost in Sarekei, just by winning 81 votes!

Since Taib Mahmud took over from Rahman Yakub, SUPP claimed that PBB had backed the Party then, if so, there was no reason why the Party fared badly in 1986 Parliamentary election either. This is because in 1986, SUPP could only win 4 out of 7 constituencies it contested. This again reflected a decline of support the SUPP had in 1982 as at that time the SUPP won 5 out of 7 SUPP contested. So the political maneuvering by SUPP within the BN had all these years not so much in SUPP’s favour and at each election, SUPP was always taught a lesson by the voters, but, why SUPP still wanted to rot inside?

During the 1987 State Election, SUPP again showed its colour of insincerity in order to cling to power by criticizing Tun Rahman Yakub, that is, the man that they respected when he was Chief Minister. Why should they chose to be with Tun Rahman as early as in 1970 in the first place; and in that 1987 election, a political leader of the Party then came out to accuse Tun Rahman’s government as corrupt? (see The Borneo Post 6 April, 1987) SUPP leaders also went on to accuse Tun Rahman Yakub and PBDS as anti-Chinese. Was SUPP not in the same Tun Rahman’s government? Soon Kai was one of those who were with Rahman Yakub’s government and he also went on to criticize Tun Rahman Yakub during the campaign! Now, we see SUPP leaders in the same government with James Masing and Dublin Unting! Both James Masing and Dublin Unting were from the disbanded PBDS.

Who are anti-Chinese?

SUPP leaders are a bunch of convenient politicians, out there just wanted to enjoy ministerial positions for personal benefits and had forgotten their tasks in keeping the trust the people had with them. They had forgotten that their support also came from the Chinese although in recent years the Chinese support for them had dwindled sharply. Did they not ever betray the Chinese?

Now, with Taib, SUPP still sing the same song they sung when with Tun Rahman Yakub. They praised Tun Rahman before, stayed in his Cabinet and enjoyed being Ministers. Now, Tun Rahman Yakub, no more, and Taib came their way, they now sang the same praise to Taib! Before they joined Rahman Yakub on Tuesday 7th July, 1970, they said Rahman Yakub was good! Now, with Taib, they say Taib is good! What had SUPP got by saying good to Taib? The answer is SUPP got the same as what they got from Tun Rahman Yakub! They still enjoy ministerial posts with chauffeured driven cars, but, same as in Rahman’s administration, nothing much SUPP could do in Taib’s government to protect the Dayak and Chinese interest as expected out from them. Now, SUPP is helping Taib’s Empire to grow and this could be seen when SUPP leaders dared not to fight against PBB recently for the allocation to SUPP of a newly created Parliamentary seat in Northern Sarawak before the recent 12th Parliamentary Election.

In Kuching, SUPP got Kota Sentosa in 2006 just because it was within SUPP’s previous constituencies of Batu Kawa and Batu Lintang and also just because bumiputera voters of the newly created Kota Sentosa Constituency were few.

If one day Taib no more their boss, SUPP may probably also wish to come hard like what they did against Tun Rahman Yakub, on Taib’s administration. So Taib, better be aware of what SUPP could be capable of once you will no more their boss.

Now under Taib, SUPP had lost the Chairmanship of Majlis Luar Bandaran Sibu and Sri Aman to name a few.

SUPP also lost the Finance Minister’s portfolio to Taib and Chairmanship of the Board of SESCo to Awang Tengah from PBB. What more? Now they lost the Mayor of MBKS and Taib until now refused to give the two Assistant Ministers posts back to SUPP and had held on to the reshuffle of his State Cabinet.

Instead, of holding on the Finance Portfolio, George Chan was just made the Modern Agriculture Minister, where not much allocation of funds had been made to his Ministry. With Modern Agriculture, what could George Chan do to the agriculture sector in Sarawak, when to develop agriculture, land is needed and land is under the control of Taib. There are native land issues hovering George Chan’s head, and how could he acquire these native lands for the development of agriculture? George Chan also could not also help the natives much and could only confine himself to do small things, like, giving some fertilizer subsidies to these natives. So, George Chan is holding a “show case” portfolio like what Tan Sri Ong Kee Hui once held, if I still could remember, as a Minister without Portfolio. With no Portfolio what could Tan Sri Ong Kee Hui do?

Therefore, SUPP’s much used slogan of “Participation in the Government” was meaningless given that SUPP had itself claimed that during Rahman Yakub’s reign, SUPP could not even promote Chinese interest and what more, the Dayaks interest, taking into consideration that in its early days, SUPP got massive support from the Dayaks.

In the last few days there were calls made openly in the press from SUPP’s own members that the Party should leave BN after the Party could not secure the mayorship of MBKS. SUPP’s leaders please don’t betray the trust of the people in you. You had been in the government for so long, yet, not much could you do to protect your own interest and how could you be able to protect the interest of Sarawakians that had all these while been faithful and been blindly supporting you?

You should now reconsider your position seriously to leave the BN government and fight your cause from outside BN like the DAP now is doing!