Joseph Tawie| January 10, 2012
There are some Sarawak BN leaders who are out to destroy coalition ally Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party, claims its president William Mawan.
KUCHING: Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) president James Masing’s call for a merger of all Dayak based parties including currently ‘party-less’ elected representatives has rattled its Barisan Nasional coalition partner Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP).
Four SPDP reps have quit the party and are currently ‘partyl-ess’. Its Marudi assemblyman Sylvester Enteri is also now party-less, after he was sacked over a leadership crisis. Masing’s call last Thursday for Dayaks to unite to form a United Dayak Front has upset SPDP president William Mawan and his supporters.
Pointing out that the merger could be done in stages, Masing said that for a start it should begin with the party-less five formerly from SPDP and five elected Dayak representatives from beleaguered Sarawak United Peoples Party (SUPP).
The former five SPDP leaders are the MP for Mas Gading Tiki Lafe (MP-Mas Gading) and assemblymen Peter Nansian (Tasik Biru), Paulus Gumbang (Batu Danau), Entri and assemblywoman Rosey Yunus (Bekenu).
Speaking at a dinner in Lundu recently Mawan blasted ‘certain’ BN leaders who offered unsolicited advice on the party’s internal problems. Without naming names he said: “I feel compelled in a way to find that certain members of fellow component parties are too free in giving their advice.”
But it was obvious to all present that he was referring to Masing.
Pointing out that his party had the mechanism and system to handle its problems, Mawan said: “We are more than competent to solve our internal problems without interference from leaders of other component parties. “But there are some people who seem to be confused, talking here and there in the name of trying to help solve SPDP’s problems, “Are they sure of doing it along the principles of BN?”
SPDP now a target
He said such advice was worded to sound good much like the tune the fabled Pied Piper played on his flute. “These BN leaders are just like the Pied Piper who is enticing them (supporters) to follow him. “But if you follow him, in the end you will fall to the sea and get drowned, ” he said.
Mawan warned that these Pied Pipers were no good and were “trying to destroy SPDP”. He said that SPDP had never meddled in the affairs of other component parties, and therefore it expected other component parties to do likewise.
Masing and Mawan are historical rivals. Their animosity began in the 2006 state election when Masing alleged Mawan and his members had sabotaged PRS candidate Alexander Vincent in the Ngemah state constituency.
Vincent lost the seat to Gabriel Adit who stood as an independent candidate. Adit had earlier resigned from SPDP after he failed to get nomination for the seat.
The seat was given to PRS to contest.
In the election, the majority of the SPDP members voted against Vincent. Because of the ‘unfriendliness’ between Masing and Mawan, the much talked merger between PRS and SPDP which was mooted by Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud in 2005 also failed to materialize.
Historical rivals
One of the reasons was that they could not agree who should helm the new entity. Meanwhile, the SPDP 5 had approached Masing to allow them to temporarily ‘park’ themselves with the party so that development funds could still be channeled through PRS to their respective areas. “It is however entirely up to the BN leadership to decide their fate. We are looking at all possibilities including being parked with PRS,” said Peter Nansian, the spokesman for the group. “We will stick to the decision made by BN leadership,” he added.
As one political observer put it, “It is not that easy for the five to be parked with PRS as Mawan will surely object to it. “It needs 100% consensus from all the BN parties,” he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment