Merger talks off for good

by Peter Sibon, reporters@theborneopost.com. Posted on April 17, 2012, Tuesday

 

KUCHING: Crisis in SPDP after sacking of five of its leaders put paid to proposed merger with PRS.

Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) president Tan Sri Dr James Jemut Masing revealed that the proposed merger with Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) has been called off for good as it could not be achieved under the current political development in SPDP.

SPDP is going through a difficult phase of restructuring after it sacked five of its senior leaders who are also elected representatives.

The five are Datuk Peter Nansian Ngusie, Datuk Sylvester Entrie Muran, Datuk Dr Tiki Lafe and Rosey Yunus and Paulus Palu Gumbang.

Masing said the proposed merger was no longer viable to pursue after the sacking of the five especially Nansian who was tasked by SPDP to lead the merger negotiation with PRS.

“We think we should just call it off. Now there is nobody with whom we should talk to (in SPDP). There is no point to continue with the proposed merger when our partner is facing its internal crisis with no solution in sight,” Masing told The Borneo Post here yesterday.

He added that the other reason for PRS to call off the proposed merger was due to certain “characters in SPDP who have gained greater prominence” after the party’s TGA in Bintulu.

“We have come to terms with ourselves after we got over our nightmares. So we do not want to go through another nightmare,” he stressed.

He was referring to the party’s crisis three years ago when there was an attempt to take over power from within his own party.

On the allegation made by some detractors that PRS is still facing an internal crisis, Masing who is also a senior Minister and Minister of Land Development pointed out that the party had dealt with the problematic individuals.

“As I have told you before, what we did to our boys is that if they have personal vendetta against any BN leaders or the BN party as a whole, we advised them not to use PRS as a platform.

“In both cases both of them were gentlemen enough to take up the challenge and leave the party,” he said, referring to Tedwin Ngumbang and Patrick Sibat who had left PRS.

In the last state election, Tedwin stood on an Independent ticket against PBB’s deputy president Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Alfred Jabu in Layar.

While in Sibat’s case, he is believed to be eying Baram in the coming general election where SPDP’s senior vice-president Datuk Jacob Dungau Sagan is the current MP.

When contacted, Nansian who was one of the key figures from SPDP’s proposed merger committee said he could no longer comment on the matter as he was no longer in the party.

“Ideally, it would be good for all Bumiputera-based parties in the state with common goals to merge so that it would become a much stronger political entity,” he said.

Currently PRS has six parliamentary and eight state seats while SPDP has three parliamentary and two state seats.

The five former SPDP leaders who have been dubbed ‘Group of Five’ or G5 comprises one MP and four state elected representatives.