Dr Rayong puts blame on Dr Chan for SUPP’s troubles*

by Johnson K Saai, reporters@theborneopost.com. Posted on February 3, 2012, Friday

KUCHING: Former SUPP Central Working Committee (CWC) member Dr Johnical Rayong Ngipa has put the blame on past party president Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Dr George Chan for the prevailing crisis in the party which may also lead to its deregistration.

Rayong, who is Engkilili assemblyman and one of those aligned to Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh’s group, said the internal squabble could have easily been avoided if only the former president had agreed to postpone the triennial delegates conference (TDC) in December last year.

“After receiving complaints from various branches on alleged irregularities in branch elections, our group suggested to him (Dr Chan) to postpone the TDC until after the general election.

“We planned to see the Registrar of Societies (RoS) in Kuala Lumpur on Dec 6 last year to brief the authority on the latest development in the party and to seek permission to convene the TDC on a later date. At first, he agreed with the idea but changed his mind soon after that,” he said.

Voicing out his fear that the party might face the worst due to the crisis, Rayong said Dr Chan should not have allowed the TDC to go on knowing very well that some disgruntled members had filed their complaints to the state RoS office for investigation.

“What he should have done was to postpone the TDC, while we explain to the RoS what had happened and give them assurance that we will rectify all the mistakes. I think if we did exactly that, I believe they will be more lenient in handling our case.

“I still remember and those in our group heard me say this to him. I told him ‘Sir, only you and God can save the party from facing possible action by the RoS’ and I was expecting him to consider my words but unfortunately he did not,” he said.

Instead, Rayong said, Dr Chan allowed the TDC to go on although the RoS investigations into all the complaints from the various party branches were still pending.

“By revealing this, I don’t mean to be disrespectful to a former boss who had accepted me into the party but I just want to voice out my disappointment that the problem was not immediately solved causing it to become more serious and later get out of hand.

“Yet, I still think that he (Dr Chan) is fully responsible for all the problems in the party. He could have easily ordered that the TDC should be postponed since he was still the president then and has all the authority,” he said when met by The Borneo Post here yesterday.

He said what worried him more now was when several well-placed sources revealed that the RoS investigations into the case actually proved that there had been violations of the party’s constitution.

“If that be the case, then it is just a matter of time before the party is served with a show-cause letter and when this happens, SUPP will be in great trouble and that is what we do not want to happen,” he said.

Unfortunately, he stated, no one could escape from the consequences if they were against the law, which also applied to SUPP.

“Now that the party had breached the constitution, as revealed by the sources, the party has to pay for the price which is likely going to be deregistration.

“This is what we fear most but it looks like it is going to happen and it is just too bad but what to do because our former president was asking for it so he should be the one to be blamed,” he reiterated.