Call to purge SNAP of opportunists

FMT Staff | May 11, 2011

Responsible political leaders should 'atone for their sins by honourably resigning', said a former SNAP deputy president.

KUCHING: Sarawak National Party (SNAP) should purge itself of “political opportunists” before the general election.

A former deputy president of the party, Ting Ling Kiew, said if these “opportunists” refused to resign voluntarily, they must be pushed out.

“If they should refuse to resign voluntarily, SNAP members should immediately initiate an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to legally change the current leadership.

“As a strong supporter of SNAP for the last 30 years, I call upon the entire central working committee members to immediately resign and give way to new blood to revive and rejuvenate the party.

“They should take full responsibility for the humiliation it has brought to SNAP.

“They should not regard the party as their family’s personal property and make use of the party to make a living,” said Ting.

Ting was sacked as the deputy president of the party after the Sibu by-election last May when he called on SNAP members to support the Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Robert Lau Hui Yew instead of the Pakatan Rakyat candidate Wong Ho Leng.

At that time, SNAP was a member of Pakatan comprising PKR, DAP and PAS.

But in the run-up to the recent April 16 state election, SNAP became embroiled in a seat tussle with PKR and has since pulled out.

‘Leaders must atone’

Ting said that many young professionals and qualified political aspirants have openly expressed their concern and their interest to join the party if the leadership changes were effected immediately.
“There is no more reason for the current SNAP leadership to hold on. By now, they should realise that they are incapable of helming the party and should give way to others.

“By holding on to their positions, they only prove that they are greedy, selfish and power-crazy people.

“Their continued presence in the party will eventually lead to the death of SNAP,” Ting warned.

The results of last month’s state general election was something for SNAP leaders to ponder seriously.

He said being wiped out and losing their deposits in all except in one of the 27 seats contested was the most humiliating “trauma” ever experienced by any political party.

“Responsible and decent political leaders with moral credibility should humbly atone for their ‘sins’ by honourably resigning en bloc to give way to new, young and responsible leaders to take over.

“Only then can the party be relevant and worthy enough for DAP to negotiate and come to terms with in the Sarawak political context,” he added.

Dundang may seek re-election

Meanwhile, SNAP president Edwin Dundang told The Star that he is considering seeking a fresh mandate as party chief in the party election in August.

He took over as president after James Wong stepped down in 2002 after helming the party for more than 20 years.

Under Dundang, the party had taken part in two parliamentary elections and two state elections.

Except for winning a seat in the 2006 state election, the party did badly, and the worst was the recent state lection where its 26 candidates lost their deposits out of 27 seats it contested.

Dundang himself lost his deposit in Marudi, a former SNAP stronghold.

BN allies wooing SNAP members

Joseph Tawie | May 10, 2011

Barisan Nasional partners, PRS and SPDP, are competing to win over disgruntled Sarawak Nasional Party (SNAP) members.

KUCHING: Sarawak National Party (SNAP) members have been urged to abandon the party as it is no longer relevant to the current state political landscape.

This call came from the party’s former central executive committee (CEC) member Sylvester Enteri.

Urging disappointed members, Enteri, a former Marudi SNAP branch chief, said: “It is no longer SNAP of the old days; it is SNAP that has been rejected by the people.

“You can decide for yourselves to which political parties you want to join in this democratic country.”

Enteri is hoping to convince unhappy SNAP members to join his Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP), a Barisan Nasional ally. SPDP won six of the eight seats it contested in the recent state election.

Enteri, who is now SPDP vice-president and Assistant Minister of Public Utilities, had contested in Marudi against SNAP president Edwin Dundang. Enteri polled 4,578 votes in this once SNAP stronghold, as against 281 votes obtained by Dundang who lost his deposit.

Close shop

Yesterday Enteri asked SNAP to close shop following its disastrous outing in the April election. SNAP lost its deposit in 26 of the 27 seats contested.

Enteri said it was now clear that Sarawakians had rejected the party and its candidates.

He said SNAP leaders had hung on to their past glory and had been harping on the fact that the party was the oldest in the state and that it had once reigned supreme.

“But SNAP’s past did not go down well with the present generation of voters….the party is no longer relevant,” he said.

Last week another BN partner, Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) called on SNAP members to join PRS in order to strengthen the voice of the Dayak community.

The once proud party’s fortunes began to sharply decline in early 2000 after a bitter quarrel between its then MP for Bintulu Tiong King Sing and the party leadership over a failed TV3 project which was supposed to have been built in Bintulu.

The quarrel led to the expulsion of Tiong and nine CEC members party. Enteri was one of them because he disagreed with the expulsion.

Enteri, together with the other expelled members, then went on to form SPDP in November 2002.

William Mawan was made the president of the party, with Enteri as secretary-general and Tiong as the treasurer-general. The party was immediately accepted into the BN fold at state and federal levels.

SNAP leaders must resign

Joseph Tawie | May 8, 2011

Beleagured SNAP's 'pullout' from Pakatan is 'immaterial' as its current leadership has 'lost all credibility', said a former top party offical.

KUCHING: A former Sarawak National Party (SNAP) vice-president has demanded that the party’s entire Central Working Committee including its president Edwin Dungan resign en bloc and take responsibility for the April 16 polls fiasco.

Declining to reveal his name, the former Sarawak Assistant Minister said: “They know who I am … they should all resign.

“They should be courageous enough to claim responsibility for the dismal performances of their candidates who all except one lost their deposits,” he said adding that it was irrelevant whether the party remained in Pakatan Rakyat or not.

The former Julau assemblyman described SNAP’s ties with Pakatan as ‘immaterial’ as party had ‘lost its credibility.’

“Whether SNAP is out of the Pakatan Rakyat or not is immaterial.

“The most important thing is for the CWC members – from the president downward – to resign and elect new committee members in order to bring credibility and integrity to the party.”

He was commenting on reports quoting SNAP secretary-general Stanley Jugol who on Friday said the party had severed its ties with Pakatan.

Jugol was quoted as saying that the 50-year-old SNAP had decided to quit Pakatan after it was sidelined following disagreements on seat allocation.

“We are no longer in Pakatan. We are now on our own,” he had said adding that it was meaningless for the party to remain in the coalition as it was no longer invited to attend any functions or meetings organised by the opposition alliance.

No credibility

Speaking to FMT yesterday, the former SNAP vice president said: “SNAP has lost its credibility and cannot claim itself to represent the Dayaks anymore.

“The recent state election clearly showed that the Dayaks have rejected the party especially under the current leadership.

“SNAP cannot rely on history and its past glory to win back the Dayaks’ support for the party, especially the young Dayaks who do not know even who SNAP’s Stephen Kalong Ningkan was.

“These young people cannot be bothered with past history as they are more interested with what the party can offer them in the future,” he said.

In 1974 SNAP won 18 state seats and nine parliamentary seats in the Dayak majority constituencies. Its leader, Ningkan was made Sarawak’s first chief minister. But their immaculate pedigree was of little use in last month’s polls.

Going into the election SNAP was already at loggerheads with PKR over seat allocation.

Refusing to compromise SNAP went ahead and contested in 27 Dayak majority constituencies with Dundang boastfully declaring they had the support of Dayaks.

In the end 26 candidates including Dundang lost their deposits. (NYAU CENGKERAM!!!)

Personal opinion

Meanwhile, Jugol today clarified his Friday statement.

He said it was his personal opinion that SNAP should pull out of Pakatan.

“The CWC members have not met to discuss the issue (pulling out), but I believe it is the general feelings of the CWC members as well as members of the party that it should leave the Pakatan Rakyat.

“What appeared in the local press that the party has severed its ties with the Pakatan Rakyat was my personal opinion,” he added.

Meawnhile Sarawak PKR information chief See Chee How when contacted said that it was not surprising that SNAP pulled out of Pakatan considering what its leaders did and acted before the state election.

He said SNAP had some good grassroots members, whom he thought would be good SNAP leaders in the future.

“But now some of them have started to join PKR… now they realised that the party is only an empty vehicle which is not able to serve the interests of the party and members of the Dayak community,” he said.

Anonymous Letter

SNAP is a party with a lot of frogs who fantasize and dream that somehow, someday they will turn into handsome princes, which they never were in the first place.

It is a party that had been mutilated beyond recognition over the years through the selfish acts of their own members with their respective agenda.

That internal divisions were well exploited by their political rivals through divide and rule, leading to the party's eventual de-registration by the ROS, only to be given a new lease of life after a few leaders met Najib just before the Batang Ai by election of April 2009.

One of those who met Najib, including Ting Ling Kiew, who was the Deputy President, was however sacked by the party. SNAP was then hijacked by a few fellows who initially thought the PKR could be their vehicle for a Dayak agenda (when SNAP's fate still being in limbo at that point).

This include people like Paul Kadang, who once worked at the PKR HQ and who ran down the PKR just before the recent Sarawak election, trying to rationalize the rebranding and revival of SNAP! Even Daniel Tajem who was once PKR adviser was roped in as a member of the new team.

The money flowed at the initial stage but when the well wishers realised that the SNAP revival was Najib backed and not contributing to the Pakatan cause, the taps went dry. The president, Edwin Dundang, who only managed to get 281 votes in Marudi, however brags that SNAP is now like a young lady with a number of potential suitors, DAP included.

The results of the recent Sarawak election where all the SNAP candidates, except one, lost their deposits suggest what the voters, even in Dayak majority seats, think of these fellows. So the Dayaks aint't no fools after all.

Enda badu badu ngerichau Apai Saloi tu ah!

SNAP not keen on DAP merger, mulls over ‘many options’

Joe Fernandez | April 24, 2011

We were betrayed by PKR during the state election and stabbed in the back by DAP, says SNAP sec-gen Stanley Jugol.

KOTA KINABALU: The Sarawak National Party (SNAP), a formidable nationalist force which once ruled the state, is at a crossroads in the wake of the just-concluded April 16 state election, according to a post-mortem concluded within days.

However, while the Iban-led party – Parti Asal Bansa Kitai — may be down for now, it’s by no means out.

This is the confident, if not defiant, tone struck by SNAP secretary-general Stanley Jugol in an exclusive take in Kota Kinabalu.

Jugol was in the Sabah capital to trade notes with Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) president Yong Teck Lee and for a much-needed short vacation with his family in a favourite holiday destination for Sarawakians.

“SAPP anticipates that the PKR will do a number on it in Sabah as it did against SNAP in the recent Sarawak elections,” said Jugol. “We could only share our unfortunate experience with PKR so that they would be ready for the onslaught when it comes.”

On the post-mortem, Jugol disclosed that his party confirmed that it was done in by two other Pakatan Rakyat (PR) members, the PKR and DAP, in-fighting within the opposition alliance, money politics by the ruling Barisan Nasional and its own lack of resources.

SNAP, the post-mortem concluded, was also not “the spoiler” in multi-cornered fights since even the combined opposition votes in the 26 seats it contested was less than that collected by the BN.

“The BN didn’t even bother to really campaign much in the rural areas and yet it won,” claimed Jugol.

“The coalition employed thousands of party workers at RM30 a day for ten days, sponsored nightly feasts in the longhouses, and bought up votes in the last two days before the voting on April 16.”

Going forward, Jugol does not think that SNAP will ever merge with the DAP following the latter’s invite from party stalwart Lim Kit Siang. He disclosed that SNAP was taken aback by the invite although it is yet to reject it outright.

The Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS), led by James Masing, has also invited SNAP to close shop and join it and participate in merger talks with the Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP).

(PRS was formed after the Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS), a 1983 breakaway from SNAP, was deregistered. Subsequently, when SNAP was deregistered for a while, the SPDP was formed.)

“The DAP invite may actually be too much too soon,” said Jugol. “We were betrayed by PKR during the state election and stabbed in the back by DAP.”

Both PKR and DAP, he explained, backed each other during the campaigning and urged the voters to reject SNAP in favour of either themselves or the other party.

Funds dried up

DAP, he added, went along with PKR’s lies and this included the fiction that SNAP was suddenly rolling in money because it was purportedly financed by the BN and would be re-joining the ruling coalition soon.

“Both PKR and DAP did not concentrate so much on BN during the campaign but against SNAP,” alleged Jugol.

“We were in fact initially financed by the losers in the recent PKR elections but the funds from them suddenly dried up once the campaigning started and we came under attack.”

Having faced the DAP’s onslaught during the polls period, Jugol did not think that SNAP could suddenly turn around and “persuade the Dayaks to love the Chinese-based Peninsular Malaysian party”.

Besides, a DAP-SNAP merger would merely be a re-creation of the discredited SUPP model, he said.

“SUPP did not benefit the Dayaks at all and in the end even the Chinese abandoned it although the Dayaks continued to stand by it in six seats.”

“The DAP has reached its maximum potential in Sarawak, among the Chinese, and that’s why it’s now eyeing the Dayak seats,” said Jugol. “So, there’s potential for a conflict in Sarawak between DAP and PKR.”

PKR, pointed out Jugol, also wants all Dayak seats for itself since “it can’t win even a single Malay seat in Sarawak despite being a Malay party”.

Leaving aside the proposed DAP-SNAP merger as a non-option, and the possibility of teaming up with PRS and SPDP, Jugol thinks that his party could still mull over several other definite options.

These include the party staying as it is – pledged to unite all Dayak seats under its banner; transform itself into a Borneo-based party or a Borneo-based national party.

“We are not in any great hurry to decide on the way forward,” said Jugol. “We have to also listen to what our members, delegates and leaders have to say on the issue during the August party elections.”

Looking at Baru

He does not rule out the possibility that SNAP would formally invite Sarawak PKR leader Baru Bian to take over the helm of the party since the president, Edwin Dundang, has expressed a wish to step down.

Baru, an Orang Ulu, is the newly-elected state assemblyperson for Ba’Kelalan. He is expected to help attract the minority Dayak communities like the Bidayuh and Melanau besides his own people.

He expects SNAP – “we are still licking our wounds” — would stay out of the fray for the parliamentary seats if the general election was held this year.

The later the general election is held, confirmed Jugol, the greater the possibility that SNAP would focus on a few Dayak seats. These have tentatively been identified as Serian, Kapit, Mambong and Betong.

Asked for the particular interest in these seats, Jugoh said that they were held by non-Dayak based parties like SUPP in Serian and the Malay-based Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) in the three other areas.

“We are in principle against non-Dayak based parties holding Dayaks seats and weakening our collective voice,” said Jugol. “Again, this is one reason why the DAP invite to us does not hold water.”

Besides the 26 seats where it contested, SNAP member George Lagong stood and won Pelagus as an independent.

Lagong, a half-brother of tycoon Sng Chee Hwa, initially had the party’s official consent to stand against Masing in Baleh at the instigation of the latter. But when Lagong changed his mind and decided on Pelagus instead, there wasn’t sufficient time to issue him with a new official consent letter since party officials were also busy in their respective areas.

Jagol : PKR is a multi-racial party; the majority of Sarawak PKR members are Dayaks. Fools open their mouths only to confirm their stupidity.

SNAP to attention when BN calls

Pak Bui

SNAP is, indeed, a ‘dying party’, as PKR’s Anwar Ibrahim has argued.

SNAP is dying because money politics is strangling this once proud party. In the 1970s, SNAP was a truly multi-racial party, led by Sarawakians with a vision for politics that extended beyond the narrow scope of being just another candidate ‘for sale’ to cash in on an election windfall.

In its heyday in the 1970s, SNAP spoke out against the draining of our oil resources to the peninsula, and the impoverishment of our people by proxy peninsular BN stooges like Rahman Yaakub and Taib Mahmud.

Najib’s father Razak and the peninsular BN insisted on Rahman taking over the rightful place of Chief Minister Stephen Kalong Ningkan. By moving Rahman and later, his nephew Taib, into place, the peninsular BN succeeded in suppressing the multiracial SNAP, as well as other avenues of inclusive, multi-racial political unity among all Sarawakians.

Rahman and Taib were tasked with obeying to the peninsular BN, delivering a large chunk of parliamentary seats to keep peninsular BN in power, and contribute to peninsular BN’s electoral war chest and bail out hapless children of peninsular BN warlords like Mahahthir. In return, the ancient uncle and the old nephew were given immunity from prosecution, and allowed a free hand to squeeze every last drop from our wealth in the state.

Rahman and Taib both played the race card, and rehashed the colonial tactics of “divide and rule”. Taib’s policy of pitting race against race paid off, and was instrumental in breaking up SNAP and triggering the formation of a ‘Dayak’ party, the PBDS. Taib finally succeeded in cowing PBDS and turning its leaders into subservient mouthpieces, like James Masing.

The peninsular BN has been trying to use the same trick of promoting a ‘Dayak’ champion like SNAP to “divide and rule”, just as Taib has done for three decades.

SNAP ‘dying’ to join BN

SNAP was ‘dying’ to rejoin the same peninsular BN that has presided over the destruction of our forests and the theft of Native Customary Rights (NCR) land. SNAP’s claims of being a Sarawakian party had no credibility because it was clear it would cross over to the BN if it won a few seats in the coming election.

According to Sarawak Report, SNAP leaders have admitted as much. SNAP president Edwin Dundang told Taib’s cheerleaders, the Borneo Post, last August 26, of his personal feelings that “Taib should not step down now because he still has a lot of unfulfilled political ambitions and missions to accomplish.”

When the SNAP plan hit the fan, party secretary general Stanley Jugol denied a pact with BN. However, he was careful not to deny SNAP would cross over to the BN after the polls, if it won seats.

Stanley Jugol complained the author of the Sarawak Report exposé on SNAP was “malicious and dishonest” for reporting that SNAP has made plans to jump over to BN Yet he never denied the Sarawak Report writer’s assertion that SNAP will embrace the BN after the election.

“Doesn’t he know that to go to the BN fold, a party will have to get consent from its members and the concurrence of each and all of (sic) the parties which are already in the BN?” he asked rhetorically. In doing so, he made it clear SNAP will certainly scrabble to obtain consent from its members, and agreement from the BN component parties, if it wins a few seats.

SNAP both “Dayak party” and “multiracial party”

In a painfully long-winded defence of SNAP during it’s campaign, its so-called director of elections Paul Kadang failed to convince Sarawakians that SNAP intends to oppose the BN. It was noticeable that after pages of typographical diarrhoea, he never once denies that SNAP will betray Sarawak’s voters, by defecting to the BN after the election.

Instead, he attacked PKR for being a party started by “Malay-Melanau politicians”. He was playing the race card, even though he grudgingly accepted that Baru Bian is now the Dayak leader of a multiracial PKR.

PKR has been working for the grassroots for more than a decade. Can Paul Kadang point to how SNAP works for the welfare of the Dayak, as Baru Bian and See Chee How of the PKR, and Chiew Chin Sing of the DAP, have done?

Which party does the handful of lawyers supporting the indigenous communities and NCR belong to? SNAP or PKR? Paul Kadang was using the same racist “divide and rule” language that Taib, and peninsular BN, have been using for decades. SNAP tried to use race as a tool to try to win a few seats, but failed miserably.

Racial politics always beats the same boring drum, “Ein volk, ein reich, ein Fuhrer” (“one people, one nation, one leader”), as in Germany under Hitler (“director of elections” of the National Socialist Party). SNAP is the leader, in Paul Kadang’s imagination, in Dayak-majority constituencies.

Paul Kadang made gruesome contortions, claiming that SNAP has had “two important characteristics vis-à-vis its support: it has always been a multiracial party. Of equal importance has been its emphasis on Dayak interests”.

The “multiracial” and “Dayak” words, lumped together, sounded exactly like Umno talking about the importance of Malay rights. Was he talking more about the elite Dayaks’ interests, or the Dayak masses’ interests?

Paul Kadang and people like him in SNAP are political opportunists, giving themselves titles like “intellectuals”. They champion only the Dayak elites, but they make pretentious claims to be representing the Dayak masses.

They pretend that only the Dayaks have socioeconomic problems and therefore, SNAP focuses on Dayak interests, when in fact, SNAP focuses on the interests of a few SNAP leaders.

SNAP’s shady funding

Paul Kadang denied SNAP had received BN money. He argued that SNAP could, theoretically, obtain funding, “for example”, from a theoretical “native petroleum engineer working in the Middle East and earning US$25,000 a month and who is moved by the plight of his community, (and) will contribute RM100,000 to SNAP’s election campaign”.

Strangely enough, he could not produce the name of this mythical philanthropist willing to give up more than a month’s salary.

Paul Kadang claimed SNAP had been “inundated with monetary contributions from well-to-do natives living abroad”. Perhaps one of these was Leo Moggie, a convert to the BN cause, and his BN friends with deep pockets.

Paul Kadang condemned critics of SNAP as “armchair politicians”. Unfortunately, Paul Kadang is himself an armchair politician.

SNAP’s current crop of failed leaders is a blight on the party.

"DISASTROUS" ko Tajem.

Tajem open to DAP-Snap merger proposal

Terence Netto
Apr 25, 11
12:21pm

Snap adviser Daniel Tajem said the idea of a merger between his party and DAP should not be dismissed outright because "we cannot be doing any worse than we are right now".

Contacted by Malaysiakini today, Tajem said nobody in Snap has asked his opinion of the matter yet, but "if they do, I would advice that they not dismiss it outright".

"We have been, at least I have been, through the worst election experience of my life where 21 of the 26 candidates we fielded lost their deposits," he said.

Tajem, 75, said he expected a formal meeting of the party to be held soon to discuss the future of Snap.

"Sure, the election results were disastrous but when we decided to restore Snap to its strength of old, we were not thinking of just the election that was held recently but of the long-term future of the Dayaks within the Malaysian nation," offered Tajem.

"This proposal of a merger between Snap and DAP is something that we could not have thought about because it's outside the frame of our thinking about the future of Dayaks," he said.

"But given our disastrous performance in the recent election we cannot be doing any worse than we are right now," opined Tajem.

Litmus test

He continued: "All my years in politics I have not seen a debacle as bad as the one Snap has just gone through. I don't think it helps our situation to blame anyone or any factor for the disaster.

"Instead, we should concentrate on the longer term which was what I, when I agreed to become the adviser, had my eyes fixed on.

"It so happened that the election interposed between our desire to revive Snap and our need to fly our colours at the polls.

"Now that the election results have come in and these have been disastrous for Snap, we should consider as wide a range of options as we can."

Tajem said the litmus test of any option was whether it would be good for the future of the Dayaks.

"That's why I would advise against dismissing outright the proposal of a merger with the DAP," he said.