On 11 February 1971 Ong Kee Hui (SUPP - Chairman) was invited by Tun Razak to join his Cabinet in the National Alliance government. Razak needed Ong Kee Hui in the Cabinet as the five SUPP MP votes were needed by the National Alliance to get its two-thirds majority in Parliament.
When Parliament convened in early 1971 the federal government with the bare two-thirds majority, thanks to SUPP, quickly made amendments to the federal Constitution prohibiting any questioning or criticism of all topics considered as sensitive, such as the position of the Malays, the status of Malay as the national language and the citizenship rights granted to immigrants. Even MPs could not refer to these matters in Parliament - pages 126-127 Chinese Politics In Sarawak by Chin Ung Ho.
*My analysis*- by joining the National Alliance(later rebranded as National Front or Barisan Nasional), SUPP gave UMNO the iron fist to control Parliament. This gave UMNO an easy path to make policies and pass laws to strengthen *Ketuanan Melayu* and also to develop Malaysia into an Islamic State. This then led Dr. Mahathir on 29 September 2001 to declare Malaysia as an Islamic State. In June 2002 Dr. Mahathir in Parliament said Malaysia is not a moderate but an Islamic fundamentalist country ( see Malaysiakini 17 June 2002).
This therefore caused social and economic developments all geared to islamic fundamentalism in which made minority races such as natives and chinese in Sabah and Sarawak feel very uneasy. There is a fear that the government policies are geared to islaminazation of the minorities in Sabah and Sarawak.
The participation of SUPP in the federal government until 2018 also saw the erosion of many Sabah and Sarawak rights including the passing of Petroleum Development Act 1974, the Sea Territorial Act 2012. These Acts led to the loss of Sabah's and Sarawak's oil and gas resources and their marine wealth to Malaya. The participation of SUPP in the federal government caused many miseries to both Borneo states. SUPP has a lot to explain to the Sarawak people because SUPP's participation in the federal government also saw the status of Sarawak being reduced to become one of the states within Malaysia.
With SUPP in the federal government, Chinese education also suffered a major setback when a federal court ruling in 1982 held that Merdeka University promoted by the Chinese community was against Article 152(1) of the federal constitution.
By Voon Lee Shan
President
Parti Bumi Kenyalang