REPORT OF THE PARTY PRESIDENT TO THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE MEETING ON 23rd SEPTEMBER, 2012
Dear Fellow Central Committee members and Comrades,
1. It is indeed an honour to present to you my Report on the Party over the past nine months relating the State of the Party as your President and to relate to you my views regarding the Party as well as the political situation in the State and the Country.
2. First, let me take you back to last year's Triennial Delegates' Conference. If you recall our Party had its last Triennial Delegates' Conference on 10th and 11th December, 2011 at the Pullman Hotel, Kuching and it was officiated by our well-respected and beloved Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak. It was a proud moment for our Party and it was historical in that it was the first time that Dato’ Seri Najib bin Tun Abdul Razak had officiated at our Party's Delegates' Conference. I am sure many of you, as elected delegates from our various branches from all over the State, had been present on that very fateful morning to listen to our Prime Minister's speech. The Prime Minister had spoken about the need to maintain good working relationship between all BN leaders of the various component parties within the State Barisan Nasional. The Prime Minister also advised SUPP members and leaders to remain united and vigilant to serve the electorates within our constituencies. He reminded everyone that our enemies were not within the individual component parties but from the opposition parties and he was confident that SUPP could do well in future polls to win the support of our voters.
3. However, I would like to put on record an incident which occurred along the side-lines prior to the official opening of the Party Delegates' Conference. I want to state that even as I had tried my best to communicate with the Prime Minister himself (and eventually did) to assure him that It was proper for him to come to Kuching on the morning of 11th December, 2011 to officiate at our Party Conference as scheduled, there were efforts coming from certain forces within our Party trying to dissuade our Prime Minister from coming to Kuching. I had communicated with the Prime Minister and Barisan Nasional Chairman twice on the matter. I had informed the then Party President, Tan Sri Datuk Patinggi Dr George Chan Hong Nam, about the matter. Whatever their reason or justification, I am of the view that they ought not have done so; it was like an act of sabotage against the good name of our Party, particularly when it was the Prime Minister's role just to officiate at the opening ceremony and nothing to do with the subsequent proceedings of the Conference itself. I am reporting this matter so that you, as the Party's leaders at Branch level, may know the proper facts relating to the incident.
4. Secondly, in the past nine months since I assumed leadership of the Party Central, I want to report that much had happened to the Party as being lead by the collective leadership of the Central Working Committee. The Secretariat under the leadership of the Secretary-General, Saudara Dr Sim Kui Hien, will be providing the details for the changes, events and activities of the Party Central since December last year. For my part, I would like to assure all Central Committee members and observers that the main thrust of the leadership is to try and ensure that our Party will perform credibly during the up-coming PRU 13. This has been utmost in the minds of all our CWC members and taking into account what happened during the State elections last April, 2011, our Party cannot afford to perform badly again. Thus, I do urge all Party leaders, particularly those who are in those Branches within SUPP parliamentary constituencies to pay attention to matters that can bring about victories for SUPP candidates. This is the time for us to show everyone that SUPP is still very much alive and able to gather support for Barisan Nasional by being personally involved in the campaign to win votes for our candidates. I would like to urge all Party members to sink whatever differences that may exist between ourselves. Let us put our Party before our personal interests and ensure that we ourselves are not the cause of our candidates' failure to win the seats allocated to our Party. Nobody can blame us if we have put in honest efforts to secure victories for SUPP candidates.
5. On the matter of working towards achieving a good PRU 13 results when it is eventually called by the Prime Minister, I would like to report that Dato’ Sri Wong Soon Koh and myself had agreed to a "peace accord" solely to ensure that we do sink all our differences arising out of the Triennial Delegates' Conference last December. It was agreed that Dato’ Sri Wong Soon Koh would take care of the Lanang and Bandar Sibu parliamentary constituencies while I would be in charge of Serian, Stampin, Bandar Kuching, Sarikei and Miri constituencies respectively. The matter relating to Dato’ Sri Wong Soon Koh's complaint to the Registrar of Societies would be taken up again after the PRU 13. To me this is a workable formula so as not to drag the matter of Party disputes to the voters' disdain and therefore risk the votes being lost to the opposition.
6. However, despite this "peace accord" I have to report that there are signs that certain lobbying activities have taken place in Sarikei and Miri. These activities are still on-going even though CWC had issued a warning to ALL party leaders and members not to carry out lobbying activities which go against the candidates proposed by the Central leadership because to do so will cause confusion to members and the public as to who should be responsible to nominate prospective candidates to contest in the seven (7) seats allocated to the SUPP. In my view and it is also the view of the CWC members that there is strong need to maintain party discipline on such matters. As such the CWC has in its meeting on 6th September, 2012 resolved to refer to the Party's newly formed Disciplinary Committee two members for breach(es) of party discipline in that they had been involved in actions which were contrary to the Party's interests.
7. Here I like to report that the Central Committee and CWC members are working hard to make the Party more and more acceptable to the voters but these efforts are being negated by certain Party leaders and members who openly opposed the policies and directions set by the leadership. Thus the attitude of such leaders and members are indeed further splitting the Party into the two camps that came about during the last Party Triennial Delegates' Conference. We expect our ministers in the government whether federal or state to put party’s interests above all else. Every Party Leader must act in the interest of the party and not against it or with any other motives or agenda.
8. Without stating the obvious, it is my whole intention as Party President who was given the mandate by the Party's delegates during last Delegates' Conference, to protect the Party and to not allow anyone to destroy the Party. I will always put the Party's interests above and over my personal interests. In my capacity as Federal Cabinet member, I have always acted in the larger interests of the Party as well as our Nation. I can safely declare that I have never once acted against the interests of the Party.
9. Fellow comrades and leaders of our beloved Party, the Parliamentary elections are just around the corner and it is a matter of priority that we must be able to successfully defend all our five (5) seats (Serian, Stampin, Sarikei, Lanang and Miri) which we are holding and, if possible, capture back the two (2) seats (Bandar Kuching and Bandar Sibu) which DAP took from us. Many have told me that to perform credibly during the next Parliamentary elections is a difficult task, one that requires Party leaders and members from whichever camp/ fractions to work together and in unison to ensure that we run the best campaign we can to get our voters to support Barisan Nasional. It is because of this that I had been very tolerant of what was said and done by some of our members as well as Branch leaders and to refrain from taking drastic steps to enforce party discipline. I like to caution such members and leaders to think of the future of our Party and not to take things too far by saying and acting against the interests of our Party.
10. In conclusion, I do hope this Central Committee Meeting will be a very fruitful one. I pledge to carry out faithfully all decisions which may be made during the course of this day and to always uphold the good name of our Party in the interests of all our members and the public at large.
Sa'ati! Sa'ati! Sa'ati!
