SUPP Sibu branch recommends 48-year-old Hui Yew to continue struggles of departed relative

Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) Sibu branch has recommended lawyer Robert Lau Hui Yew as the Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate for the Sibu by-election. Its chairman Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh said SUPP Sibu branch had forwarded Hui Yew’s name to party president Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Dr George Chan for his sanction.

“I believe Dr Chan will make the announcement soon,” he told a news conference here yesterday. Wong, who is Minister of Environment and Public Health, said the branch had already made its preparations for the by-election following the death of its five-term incumbent, Datuk Robert Lau Hoi Chew, the deputy transport minister, on Friday in Kuala Lumpur.

Meanwhile, Hui Yew, who is SUPP Sibu branch’s assistant treasurer, yesterday said he was leaving it to the party’s top leadership to decide whether he should stand for the Bandar Sibu by-election.

Fielding questions from reporters, Hui Yew said he would go with the decision of the party’s leadership.

“Let’s not be too presumptuous over the issue,” said the 48-year-old, who has been with SUPP for 17 years.

The by-election is necessitated by the untimely demise of incumbent Datuk Robert Lau Hoi Chew, who was Deputy Transport Minister when he died of cancer on April 9 in Kuala Lumpur.

Talk of the street had it that Hui Yew was the person the late Lau had wanted to be his successor, especially in the later days when Lau realised it was hard for him to pull through.

Reporters pounced on Hui Yew after he had officiated at the opening of an education fair at SMK Sacred Heart.

Earlier, speaking at the function in his capacity as president of Sacred Heart Old Students Association, Hui Yew said the late Lau, who is his second cousin, had always championed the development of education in the country, particularly Sibu.

“Without him all the schools in Sibu will not be the way they are today,” he said, dubbing the late Lau as the father of modern Catholic Mission schools.

BP13/04/2010