KUCHING, May 19 — The Sarawak United People’s Party’s (SUPP) central working committee (CWC) has demanded that its former Sibu branch chief Datuk Seri Wong Soon Koh resign as Bawang Asan assemblyman and as a state Cabinet member after he joined Parti Tenaga Rakyat Sarawak (Teras).

It also decided to expel Wong from the party, saying that his move to join Teras was “prejudicial to the interest of SUPP.”

“He betrayed the party which nominated him, and the voters who voted for him,” the CWC said in a press statement after a meeting yesterday.

Wong, who is the state’s Second Finance Minister, had been at loggerheads with Chin since the latter was elected as the party president about two years ago.

Wong joined Teras last Thursday with Bengoh assemblyman Dr Jerip Susil, Ranum Mina (Opar) and Dr Johnical Ngipa (Engkilili).

On the three assemblymen, the CWC said it would write to them to confirm if they had joined Teras.

SUPP president Datuk Seri Peter Chin explained that this was because the trio had not submitted resignation letters to the party and hence, were still party members.

Chin also quashed claims that Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem had accepted Teras as a Barisan Nasional (BN) member.

He said Adenan’s recent remarks about Teras after he received a courtesy call from its members should not be taken to mean that the party was already part of the coalition.

“No, Adenan never said he had accepted Teras into BN. He just acknowledged that Teras supports BN,” he said. Chin is confident that SUPP and other BN parties will reject Teras’ application to join the coalition.

“If you go by the constitution of BN, there must be a unanimous agreement. If there is no unanimous consent from all BN parties, Teras cannot become a BN member,” he said.

Meanwhile, members from 10 units of Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) Wanita and 16 leaders from SPDP Pemuda wings yesterday announced that they had quit the party to join Tan Sri William Mawan Ikom in Teras.

The Wanita units represent about 10,000 members while the 16 Pemuda chiefs represent about 5,500 members.