Crisis-ridden Sarawak National Party (Snap) today insisted it had submitted the agreed constitutional amendments to increase the number of appointed members in the party's central executive committee to the Registrar of Societies despite reports claiming otherwise.

CEC member, Senator William Lau, told malaysiakini that secretary-general Justine Jinggut re-confirmed today that the application had been sent to the ROS.

Snap executive-secretary Johsua Melling also told malaysiakini that he had personally handed in the application which is seeking ROS' approval to increase the number of appointed members from five to eight.

"It was a very thick bundle with a lot of forms to be filled up as required by the ROS office. Usually it takes months for approval to be given," he added.

However, local English daily — Sarawak Tribune — quoted an ROS official in a report today as saying that the statutory body had not received any submission from Snap regarding the amendment draft.

Null and void

Last week, the faction led by Snap vice-president and Minister of Environment and Public Health William Mawan (photo) accused the president of appointing two additional members without getting the approval of the ROS.

In view of this, it was said that any decision made by the CEC which involved voting by appointed members should be declared null and void — implying that the recent sacking of treasure-general Tiong King Sing was unconstitutional.

The member of parliament for Bintulu was sacked by the CEC last month for breach of party discipline after he allegedly promised a large sum of money for the construction of a TV3 transmitting station in his constituency.

Tiong has denied the charge saying that he was only helping to raise the money but before he could complete the task he was no longer the treasurer-general.

The Miri High Court recently delivered a default judgment against the party for not paying the contractor for work done on the station.

Meanwhile, secretary-general Jinggut rebutted the claim by Mawan's faction saying that the three new CEC members although given letters of appointment have yet to accept the post.

According to Jinggut, the trio attended last month's CEC meeting ( where the decision to expel Tiong was reached) as observers and nothing more.

'Nice fellow'

In another development, a Snap official said that embattled party president, James Wong Kim Min, is still in Australia following a "successful" knee surgery.

The official who declined to be named said that the 80-year-old president (photo) does not deserve to be "treated publicly in the way that he has by his opponents".

"He is such a nice fellow and has done so much for the party," he stressed, adding that Wong has for many years donated RM10,000 every month for maintaining the party headquarters.

This amount constitutes about half of Snap's monthly expenses which also covers its statewide divisional and regional offices. The rest of the money comes from other elected representatives of the party.

The official also denied a newspaper report which quoted Mawan as saying that Snap has debts amounting to RM1.6 million.

He said as far as he knew, the only debt due from the party was RM1.4 million to the president for his "advances or contributions" towards the party.

Mawan's faction which also includes deputy president Peter Tinggom have called on Wong to step down.

At least 48 of the party's 62 branches plus eight elected representatives — five state assemblypersons and three members of parliament — have called for the president's immediate resignation.

Mawan claimed that Wong had lost the "moral ground" to stay on after the majority in the party wants him to leave.

The faction is also calling for an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to address this issue but the party's secretary-general said that only the national council could remove Wong as president.

He added that holding an EGM to remove the president elected by the national council would be unconstitutional.