Sarawak National Party (Snap) deputy president Peter Tinggom has accused party president James Wong Kim Min of wanting his eldest son, Richard Wong, to succeed him as Snap president and as minister in the Sarawak cabinet.

However, Richard failed to get appointed to his father's former ministerial post after last September's state election. Instead, party's vice-president and rebel leader William Mawan was appointed to fill Snap's only full ministerial quota in the state cabinet.

Tinggom revealed at a media conference in Kuching today that the party president had told senior Barisan Nasional leaders that he would like his son to succeed him in both posts. Richard is the party's senior vice-president and state assemblyperson for Limbang.

Now that his son was not appointed a minister, James Wong continues to hide behind the party constitution to perpetuate his and his family's tight grip on the party, Tinggom alleged..

"He can hide behind the party constitution because it is made to favour those who control the central executive committee (CEC), that is, the president and the secretary-general," he said.

'The constitution is such that although the national council is the highest governing body of the party, it still has to get the approval or sanction of the CEC on anything it wants to do."

Tinggom, a former deputy federal minister, was responding to comments by Richard who had accused rebel group leader William Mawan of being too impatient and too anxious to take over the party leadership.

Richard had said his father had contemplated stepping down at next February's triennial general meeting but recent developments had changed all that.

Defending Mawan and his group for calling on the president to step down now, Tinggom said: "I wish to clarify that William Mawan (the state minister for environment and public health) and many others in Snap have been very patient for far too long."

He said the senior Wong had been telling party members many times since the last few triennial general assemblies that he would step down and yet to date has not shown any sign of doing so.

"Instead, he claimed that there are no other capable leaders in the party to take over from him till now," Tinggom said.

Causing uncertainty

Tinggom accused the party president of deliberately creating a situation to cause uncertainty and anxiety among members.

He doubted Richard's statement that his father would have agreed to hand over leadership to a new man at the coming party assembly had Mawan shown patience.

'This is because all this while the president has been saying to us that he would like to go on for 'just another term' as he usually told us before many triennial general meetings in the past," Tinggom said.

"If what Richard said was true, why was it that when I came out with an open invitation much earlier than this for the president to step down in the coming general assembly together with me, there has been no response till now? Had Wong agreed to my suggestion earlier, today all these problems in the party would not have cropped up."

"If Wong is sincere and serious in resolving the problems facing Snap now, all he needs to do is announce that he will gracefully step down with me and immediately replace the current secretary-general with someone else who can manage the affairs of the party better", Tinggom added.