United Party merges with Democratic Party

Published on: Monday, October 15, 1962

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NORTH BORNEO NEWS & SABAH TIMES - (Monday, October 15, 1962) - JESSELTON, Sunday. — Mr Hong Teck Guan’s miracle has taken place: the United Party and the Democratic Party have merged. At a meeting held on 12th October, a meeting which went on to the early hours of the morning of the 13th, agreement was reached by the party leaders for the merger of their two parties.

A short statement issued after agreement was reached said that at a meeting held on 12th October 1962 the Chairman of the United and the Chairman of the Democratic Party had reached “full agreement on the terms of merger of our two political parties” and that the terms of the merger had been accepted by the parties and that the process of “merging the two political parties into one political party” was proceeding forthwith.

How did the miracle happen? To Dr Lim Swee Aun, the Federation of Malaya Minister of Commerce and Industry most got the lion’s share of the credit for bringing about the long talked of merger.

On his arrival Dr Lim and members of his delegation from Malaya arranged to meet the United Party and the Democratic Party leaders. He first met them separately and then arranged for a joint meeting which took place on 12th.

It was not an easy meeting. Only a few days ago some of the newspapers in the country were still carrying stories which showed the rift between the UP and the DP, and this culminated in Mr Hong Teck Guan saying that a “miracle” would be needed to bring the two parties together.

But the result was what mattered, and the result was the Chairman of the United Party and the Chairman of the Democratic Party, both of whom had been given full authority by their respective Central Committees to sign on their behalf did sign the merger agreement.

A meeting has now been arranged to take place on Tuesday, 16th October which will be attended by leaders of the United Sabah National Organisation; leaders of the United National-Kadazan Organisation and leaders of the UP-DP merger.

The meeting will explore possibilities of an Alliance. Dr Lim Swee Aun was responsible for arranging the meeting and Datu Mustapha the Usno chief, and Mr Khoo Siak Chiew, leader of the UP-DP Merger, and Dr Donald Stephens the Unko leader have all agreed to attend the meeting together with top men from their Central Executive Committee.