KUCHING: Members of the Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) should give the new Kuching City South mayor James Chan Khay Syn a chance to serve the people here.

The members are told that although they are disappointed with the state cabinet’s decision to appoint a non-politician as the mayor, they should not react hastily over the appointment.

Instead they should give time for the new mayor to prove his worth, said SUPP president Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Dr George Chan in his office at Wisma Bapa Malaysia yesterday.

Dr Chan said: “I am sure he can do a good job, and I am encouraging my party members to work together with him so that we (SUPP) can regain the confidence of the Kuching people.

“He has the management skills and there is no doubt he will make a good mayor.”

“Let the new mayor work first and we will see how.”

He said this when asked to comment on the party grassroots leaders’ statement earlier in the day that the party should leave the Barisan Nasional (BN) if its expectations were not met.

SUPP Pending branch secretary Lu Kim Yong expressed ‘great disappointment’ with the state government for not giving the mayor’s post to a candidate nominated by the party.

Lu said he had also received many calls and SMSes from party members saying that they felt the same way as he did, and it was timely for him to voice out his sentiment over the matter.

“To many SUPP leaders, members and the Chinese community, it is a very disappointing decision by the state cabinet.

“It is unfair to SUPP. We have done a lot for the people of Sarawak and we have stayed loyal and strongly supported the government in 1987. Otherwise, the history of Sarawak politics would have been rewritten,” he told a press conference at his office at Jalan Ellis.

He said the party’s contribution in the past and present should be appreciated.

“Although there is no law to say that the mayor’s post should be given to SUPP, it has been a tradition that a Chinese should be appointed mayor in a Chinese-majority area and a SUPP politician has always been entrusted with the responsibility to serve the people as the mayor.

“This practice has stopped because SUPP lost the Kuching seats,” said Lu.

He said many top leaders and members felt that if the party’s proposed candidates for the mayorship were unsuitable, there were many eligible and qualified people in the party who were lawyers, doctors, engineers, accountants and people who handled multi-billion ringgit projects.

“These people are all ready to serve the people,” he claimed.

Lu claimed that the failure of SUPP to secure the mayor’s post would portray the image among the Chinese community that the party was weak and it would be hard to gain their confidence.

Of the new mayor, Lu said he did not know much about Chan and it was too early to comment about his abilities.