{"id":10462,"date":"2016-05-09T15:40:13","date_gmt":"2016-05-09T07:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/?p=10462"},"modified":"2016-05-09T16:35:44","modified_gmt":"2016-05-09T08:35:44","slug":"article-from-sarawak-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/?p=10462","title":{"rendered":"Article from Sarawak Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Published with kind permission from Sarawak Tribune.”<\/p>\n

Who says a doctor doesn\u2019t make a good politician?<\/p>\n

Most critics have written off Sarawak United Peoples\u2019 Party (SUPP), some even within the party who felt that this election would see the demise of one of the oldest party in Sarawak. Even at ceramah, there were opponents who predicted that the party would be wrapped up the party once and for all in the just concluded election.<\/p>\n

So it was a surprise when Senator Datuk Dr. Sim Kui Hian, son of the late Tan Sri Sim Kheng Hong who was formerly Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister wrestled back four seats, Piasau, Repok, Meradong, Batu Kawa from its arch rival, Democratic Action Party (DAP), won a new seat(Batu Kitang) and retained Senadin and Simanggang both with a bigger majority. Although they failed to take back Padungan, Pending, Batu Lintang, Bukit Assek and Tj Batu, they have managed to narrow the margin of the majority.<\/p>\n

Thus it was understandable that Dr. Sim\u2019s mother, Puan Sri Lim Su Kheng was reduced to tears when the results were announced. The two weeks campaigning and negative views on the party had stressed everyone.\u00a0 And it was commented that a doctor make a lousy politician.<\/p>\n

Dr. Sim, one of the renowned world cardiologists lost in the last State election but this did not put him off politics. When he was elected President of SUPP two years ago, Dr. Sim put life back into the dying party after it lost 13 of the 19 seats it contested.\u00a0 Even the party headquarters which look neglected was given a new coat of paint and renovated.<\/p>\n

Not only the physical aspect of the building was in tatters then, the party itself was plagued with internal problems. Things looked bad for the party when Dato\u2019 Sri Wong Soon Koh walked off with three of the state assemblymen to join Teras in May 2014. He later formed United People\u2019s Party (UPP) a month later and was made President.<\/p>\n

Having only two remaining State Assemblyman, Datuk Francis Harden and Datuk Lee Kim Shim, Dr. Sim picked up the broken pieces with his new team to start from scratch.<\/p>\n

Even the allocation of seats had put the party in a bad light. SUPP was mocked for having only 13 seats left and critics estimated that the party will be done with in the 11th<\/sup> State election with maybe only Simanggang left holding the torch.<\/p>\n

Refusing to give up, Dr. Sim said the party is starting afresh with new leadership. And as a leader by example, he took to the ground to work hard turning a deaf ear to insults and ridicule while asking his comrades to do the same.<\/p>\n

Calling the win a people\u2019s power, Dr. Sim said he thanked the supporters for throwing them this life-line bringing in seven win. He said the Chief Minister\u2019s Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem\u2019s policies had played a big part in helping them win.<\/p>\n

Being a medical person he is, the good doctor is not only systematic in his approach in life like his surgical operations, but the medical scientist in him has embedded a number of qualities that he requires to practise for himself in politics.\u00a0 These qualities are the ones he looks into when grooming the second echelon amongst his party strongmen.<\/p>\n

One of the qualities of a good leader is to ensure that he grooms a second echelon through wisdom of choice and provision of training, aimed at taking over the leadership.\u00a0 Dr Sim, in doing this has made it a point to groom the party younger leaders for the future.\u00a0 His ability to read leadership qualities in the candidates he put forward in this election have proven right.<\/p>\n

In Dato\u2019 Sebastian Ting, he was right where integrity is concerned. Sebastian had worked for decades on the ground in Piasau and even continued to do so when he lost in the last Parliamentary election. He won with a handsome majority fighting off a giant in DAP, Alan Ling who is the party secretary-general.<\/p>\n

Lo Khere Chiang was put in a new seat, Batu Kitang. Lo is known to be a soft spoken compassionate person. Having been in the Padawan Council for years, Lo was well known in the Batu Kitang area giving him an edge over his opponents. As Chairman of the MPP, Lo strives to put the council into the best form.<\/p>\n

However, an observer jokingly added that Dr. Sim was right to put Lo as a candidate as Padawan Municipal council has good \u2018fengshui\u2019.\u00a0 Almost all of the Padawan Municipal council\u2019s Chairman (formerly known as the Kuching Rural District Council) were elected in as State Assemblyman. Dr. Sim\u2019s own father was once the Chairman, so was the late Datuk Chong Kien Kong, Datuk Alfred Yap Chin Loi, Tan Joo Poi\u00a0 and now Lo.<\/p>\n

Whatever it was, the party is slowly but surely gaining some footway towards its glorious past. Thus, never under-estimate the hidden strength of a doctor.<\/p>\n

\"Dr<\/a>
Dr Sim centre with his team<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Published with kind permission from Sarawak Tribune.” Who says a doctor doesn\u2019t make a good politician? Most critics have written off Sarawak United Peoples\u2019 Party (SUPP), some even within the party who felt that this election would see the demise of one of the oldest party in Sarawak. Even at ceramah, there were opponents who predicted that the party would be wrapped up the party once and for all in the just concluded election. So it was a surprise when Senator Datuk Dr. Sim Kui Hian, son of the lateRead More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10463,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10462"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10462"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10464,"href":"http:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10462\/revisions\/10464"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.suppnewsportal.com\/main\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}