YOUNGER leaders in Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) will campaign in the 14th general election using the “Sarawak Agenda” and stay away from addressing national issues like kleptocracy and corruption allegations against Prime Minister Najib Razak.

They want to sell voters the idea that they should vote to make Sarawak a strong political entity, free from the politics in Peninsular Malaysia, said SUPP Youth chief Michael Tiang.

“(Voters) should make Sarawak a strong political entity. We’re not going to be tagged to all those scandals in the peninsula.

“Sarawak will have a different agenda and we will distance ourselves from what’s going on in the peninsula,” said Tiang who is also a political secretary to the Sarawak chief minister.

He and former youth chief Tan Kai said they would use the “Sarawak Agenda’ template that was used in the state election in 2016  to highlight state concerns and rights.

“The message is we want to keep our house Sarawak strong and clean,” Tan said in reference to keeping extremists and religious bigots from the peninsular out of the state.

This election, Tan said, should not be viewed as voting for Najib or condoning kleptocracy and corruption.

“It should be viewed as a vote to make Sarawak strong, as 30 or 31 seats, if we win everything, it will give us the bargaining chips to regain our rights in the Malaysia Agreement 1963 and the oil royalty with whoever wins the election,” he said, referring to Umno in the peninsular and the opposition pact Pakatan Harapan.

“Depending on the nature of their win, they (Umno) could be coming to Sarawak-based parties for support. The same could be said for PH if they win big but do not have the numbers to form the government.

“We, therefore, need to have those bargaining chips and this is the message we want to pass to the voters. It’s all for Sarawak, not the peninsula. We must be the kingmaker,” Tan said.

However, he admitted that selling this idea to voters would be hard.

SUPP is Sarawak’s oldest political party. In the 2013 general election, the Barisan Nasional component party was allocated seven seats – mostly their “traditional urban seats” – to defend but lost six of them.

It managed to keep the rural Dayak seat of Serian, which was won by its deputy president and Human Resource Minister Richard Riot.

SUPP lost Bandar Kuching, Stampin, Sibu, Lanang, Sarikei to DAP and Bandar Miri to PKR. All are Chinese-majority urban seats.

“We can win all except Bandar Kuching,” said Tan, who was SUPP’s candidate for Bandar Kuching in 2013, but got amauling form DAP state supremo Chong Chieng Jen, who polled 73.8% of the 40,285 votes cast.

But Tan said SUPP’s resurgence in the 2016 state election has boosted the party’s confidence ahead of the national polls.

SUPP won back the seats of Batu Kawah, Repok, Meradong and Piasau while retaining the seats of Simanggang and Senadin. They also won the new seat of Batu Kitang.

As for urban federal seats, DAP holds Bandar Kuching, Stampin, Sarikei, Sibu and Lanang, while Miri was won by PKR – all of them Chinese-majority areas.

Tan said SUPP was upbeat about winning in Sarikei, giving it a “100% chance” as the party held the two state seats of Repok and Meradong within the constituency

For the Stampin federal seat, he said there was a 60% chance as SUPP held Batu Kitang and Batu Kawah, two out of the three state seats within the constituency.

He also said Sibu could go back to the BN as the ruling coalition held two of the three state seats Bawang Assan, held by Second Finance Minister and UPP chief Wong Soon Koh and the Malay-majority Nangka by Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) newly elected vice-president Dr Annuar Rapaee.

Pelawan, the third seat, is held by DAP’s David Wong.

“The same goes with Miri where we have the Piasau and Senadin state seats while DAP is still hanging on to Pujut,” he said.

As for the Lanang parliamentary seat, Tan said it was a 50-50 chance for SUPP to wrest back from DAP as one state seat, Bukit Assek, was under the DAP while SUPP had the other seat of Dudong. – February 23, 2018.