SWP in choppy waters

By Johnson K Saai, June 9, 2012, Saturday

KUCHING: Several office bearers of Sabah People’s Front Party (SPFP) have lodged a police report recently over the acquisition of their party’s registration by Sarawak Workers’ Party (SWP).

They claimed that all the documents pertaining to the change of party’s name from SPFP to SWP, including changing the address from Sabah to Sarawak, were forged.

A source from Sabah told The Borneo Post through phone yesterday that according to newspaper reports these SPFP office bearers claimed that minutes of an extraordinary general meeting purportedly called by the party to approve the change of its name to Sarawak Workers’ Party were false.

The source added that SPFP on Sunday suspended the president and secretary-general for falsifying the extraordinary general meeting (EGM) minutes and changing the party’s name to Sarawak Workers’ Party.

“The party also lodged a police report against the president and secretary-general. I was made to understand that some of the office bearers have gone to Putrajaya to meet with the Registrar of Societies (ROS) over this matter,” he said.

However, it was not clear how the office bearers could suspend their president and secretary general and whether their suspension had been submitted to Sabah’s Registrar of Society (ROS).

ROS Sabah when contacted on Thursday said that they had yet to receive any official complaints from SPFP or minutes of a meeting pertaining to the sacking of the president and secretary-general.

Its senior officer only confirmed that they did help the party to get copies of the relevant documents about the change of party’s name from their headquarters in Putrajaya upon the request of the office bearers.

“We delivered the copies of the documents to them upon their request and according to them; the EGM had never been convened at all.

However, decisions on the fate of political parties do not rest in the hands of state ROS and the officer who spoke on condition of anonymity said that the whole matter had been referred to the ROS headquarters in Putrajaya.

Opinions in Sarawak are split over the legality of SWP with some political pundits believing the party should not be penalised as it took over SPFP’s registration in good faith while some were of the opinion that the change of name would be illegal if the SPFP’s EGM minutes were false.