KUCHING: Former members of Sabah People’s Front (SPF) who recently challenged the legality of Sarawak Workers Party (SWP) are now focusing their attention on forming a new party.
This move seemed to indicate that SWP, which was formed recently following the SPF name change, is now free from possible legal wrangles over its existence.
Several months ago, former SPF members had claimed that the name change was illegal because the extraordinary general meeting had been falsified as the EGM was never ever convened.
The party that these former members planned to form is called Sabah Solidarity Party, or Parti Perpaduan Sabah (PPS), with former SPF deputy president Osman Enting as its pro-tem president.
When contacted by The Borneo Post, Osman said they submitted their application to the Registrar of Societies (ROS) Sabah on July 5.
“All the necessary documents, including our party constitution, have been submitted to the ROS. We are all very hopeful that the new party will be given due consideration because we feel that at the moment there is no single party here (in Sabah) which really fights for the rights of Sabahans.
“The stand of the people in Sabah now is that they want a local party that can really look after their interest like in Sarawak, where it is being governed by local parties. As for Sabah, we already lost most of our privileges after the state government was taken over by Umno several years ago.”
Osman said the main struggle of PPS would be to ensure that the 20-Point Agreement signed prior to the formation of Malaysia be honoured and complied with by all quarters.
“Apparently, some points have slowly been removed, and we are at the disadvantage. This is the reason why the people in Sabah want a new party to defend their rights, especially with regards to the 20-Point Agreement.”
On another matter, Osman denied speculations that PPS was sponsored by SWP prime mover Datuk Sng Chee Hua so as to stop them from pursuing the legality of the SPF name transfer.
“There’s no such thing. That is completely untrue. I never even met him and neither do I know him in person. I don’t even know how he looks like, so how can he sponsor PPS?”
Osman said the main reason they decided not to pursue the issue was because they had hope that SWP would one day spread their wing to Sabah, just like the State Reform Party (STAR).
“That was basically why we did not want to put SWP in trouble, but instead give chance to its party leaders to discuss things with us, but, unfortunately, until today we have not heard anything from them.
“It looks like they are not interested in responding to our call, but it’s alright for us. We will still give them time because we believe that one day they will finally agree to expand their wings to Sabah.”
Osman stressed that this decision was not his, but that of the 29 former SPF supreme council members who met recently.
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