MCA vice president Gan Ping Sieu wants Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud to quit as Sarawak chief minister as he has lost the support of the Chinese community there.
Taib, who leads Sarawak Barisan Nasional (BN), helped the ruling coalition win 55 out of 71 state seats — or 77 per cent of the legislative assembly — in the recently concluded Sarawak state election.
His party, Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), won all 35 seats it contested.
But PBB’s mainly Chinese partner, the Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP), suffered heavy losses to DAP in Chinese-majority seats even after MCA helped it campaign.
Sarawak’s oldest political party only managed to win six of the 19 seats contested, losing 12 of those to DAP. Even its president and deputy chief minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan lost his seat to a DAP newcomer.
SUPP’s defeat parallels MCA’s decimation in the 2008 general elections when the latter saw its parliamentary representation cut by half from 31 to 15 seats.
Gan, however, said it was not enough that BN retained its customary two-thirds majority in Sarawak because Taib, as a BN leader, needs to command the support of all communities regardless of ethnicity.
“In the absence of overall support from the various ethnic groups in Sarawak and as a Barisan Nasional senior leader, Taib Mahmud should consider passing the baton to another BN leader as soon as possible,” Gan said in a statement today.
He commended SUPP for declining to nominate members to the Sarawak Cabinet after being slaughtered at the polls, calling the move a “principled political stand”.
“SUPP has a lot of good leaders,” Gan said. “Despite SUPP’s severe electoral setback, I am confidant SUPP will not give up its political cause in Sarawak and will continue to serve the people.”
