The question is most people's mind now after High Court judge Richard Malanjun's Friday decision to set aside an ex-parte court injunction is how the Sarawak National Party's (Snap) domestic quarrels will proceed from here.

On Friday, the judge set aside the injunction, granted in chambers by judicial commissioner Zakaria Sam on June 7, stopping, among other things, a planned crucial meeting of the party's national council called by opponents of party president James Wong Kim Min.

He cited several grounds for his decision, including the prohibition under the Societies Act, as amended recently, for decisions of political parties to be questioned in a court of law and the domestic remedies available under the party's constitution to parties in dispute to resolve differences, including passing a motion of no-confidence and to go for arbitration.

In the last two months, the president's opponents comprising a group of nine elected representatives, one of whom is a state minister, a deputy federal minister and two assistant state ministers, have been clamouring publicly for his and the party's secretary-general Justine Jinggut's resignations from their posts and to allow them to take over.

They have even supported Snap vice-president and State Minister of Environment and Public Health William Mawan as their choice for new president.

Wong has resisted the move, saying he would only leave it to the party delegates at the next party elections in February to decide.

Commenting on calls for him to step down, Justine told reporters on Friday he was appointed by the president and it was a matter for the president to decide.

Failed plans

Justine added that he believed the call on him to step down was because of the group's failure to what he described as their plans to bulldoze certain things through him (Justine). He did not say what they were.

So when the group led by deputy president Peter Tinggom called their own central executive committee meeting on May 29 and fixed a date for the national council meeting on June 9, one of Wong's immediate tasks from overseas was to ask his lawyers to apply for an injunction to stop the national council meeting.

The national council meeting was intended, as malaysiakini learnt, to move censure motions on Wong and Justine and to fix a date for an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to make Mawan the new president.

If this had gone ahead, Snap could end up having two presidents and their own committees — like the situation that Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS) faced when Joseph Kurup and Dr Jeffrey Kitingan both claimed to be the lawfully-elected president of the party.

With the court injunction, the Wong's faction was able to get the June 9 national council aborted, and with Wong himself now back in the country the Tinggom-Mawan group cannot again call a CEC meeting on their own as Wong is the legally elected president and he has appointed Justine as secretary-general.

Cooling-off period

So how will things proceed from here? On Friday, after the court's decision on the injunction, Mawan said little, except that members of his group would have to sit down and plan their next course of action. He also remarked that a cooling-off period would be good.

But it is known that some feelers have been sent out to try and mediate a settlement between the two factions, and this has not been publicly denied.

Contrary to much talk, the setting aside of the injunction by Malanjun is seen as no longer of any relevance because the president has achieved his purpose — to stop the national council meeting, and since he is back in Sarawak, his challengers cannot simply call another CEC meeting.

Malaysiakini learnt from Snap senior vice-president Richard Wong, the only party's elected representative on the president's side (he is also Wong's eldest son), that Snap will be holding a central executive committee meeting on June 28 in Kuching.

"Notices of the meeting will be sent to all CEC members and they include all the elected representatives as well as the principal office bearers and the appointed members."

He did not say what will be on the agenda, but speculation is that since the president has made his views known that it is best to leave the matter to the delegates to resolve, the forthcoming CEC meeting will discuss preparations for the party elections early next year.

It is reliably learnt that the president and his group have sent feelers to the grassroots to assess the degree of support for them.

A possibility

"If the ground support is weak there's even a possibility that the triennial general meeting (TGM) may be pushed back by another year to 2004," one source told malaysiakini .

The whole thing, however, also hinges on whether the president could get the Registrar of Societies to approve the amendment to the party constitution allowing the number of appointed members to be increased from five to eight.

If he is able to do this before the CEC meeting then he can go ahead and make all the appointments to the full quota, giving him more than a simple majority in the CEC.

This would then put pressure on the Tinggom-Mawan group to talk and reach out for a compromise, which could include a further term for the president but with an agreement that he steps down after a year from the next TGM, and that a new secretary-general be appointed.

Over the next two weeks, therefore, there could be contacts between the two factions to try and work out a compromise — and possibly leading to a list of new office-bearers acceptable to both sides ahead of next year's TGM.

The worst case scenario is, if one side remains adamant, some of the frustrated elected representatives may opt to leave the party and join one of the component parties in the ruling state coalition. This has happened in the past and there is no reason to suggest that it would not occur again.

Meanwhile, malaysiakini understands that James Wong has sought a meeting with Prime Minister and BN chairperson Dr Mahathir Mohamad to brief him on the party crisis and the meeting is expected to be held on June 20.

TONY THIEN is a malaysiakini correspondent based in Kuching, Sarawak.