The crisis in the Sarawak National Party (Snap) deepened today when elected representatives of a rebel faction decided at their own central executive committee meeting to call for a national council meeting in two weeks time "to resolve once and for all the crisis facing the party".

The CEC meeting, held at the party headquarters after its locked doors were forced open, was chaired by deputy president and member of parliament for Saratok Peter Tinggom, 78, and attended by seven other CEC members, giving them a majority of one in the committee.

According to his group  Peter Nyarok, vice-president and assistant minister of tourism; Dr Judson Sakai Tagai, vice-president, Youth head and assistant minister for infrastructure development; Peter Nansian, assemblyperson for Tasik Biru and chairman of the Sarawak Housing and Development Commission; Jacob Sagan, vice-president and the member of parliament for Baram; Winnie Jolly, Women's chief and vice-president; and Geman Itam, vice-president and former assemblyperson for Meluan.

Also present was Deputy National Unity and Community Development Minister Dr Tiki Lafe, whom the party president replaced with lawyer John Antau as an appointed CEC member recently.

Locksmith summoned

Earlier, the group summoned a locksmith to open the roller-shutter to the Snap headquarters building in Rubber Road, Kuching as the office had closed since last Friday. The main glass door inside was, however, not locked.

Speaking before a packed media conference later, Tinggom said that on May 20 he had sent a letter to secretary-general Justine Jinggut requesting him to call for a CEC meeting last Friday.

"One day before the scheduled date for the CEC meeting, YB Judson Tagal was around the Snap headquarters and found the door closed, even though Gawai Dayak [a local festival] is still many more days away," said the deputy president.

Because of this, the meeting was rescheduled to today, which also encountered the same problem , leading the group to hire a locksmith to force open the office.

Malaysiakini understands that while this was going on, the party's deputy secretary-general Stanley Jugol, who is also a political secretary to the Sarawak chief minister, lodged a police report.

Urgent matters

Tinggom, a former deputy federal minister who has announced that he is not seeking re-election both as deputy president and member of parliament and wants James Wong (photo) to step down gracefully together with him, denied the party president's accusation that he was trying to usurp the president's authority and powers by calling the meeting without his consent and approval.

According to him, the party's constitution said he could act in the president's absence in calling for a CEC meeting if there were urgent matters to be deliberated.

He added that he had chaired a CEC meeting in the absence of the president after the last parliamentary elections when Wong had to go to Singapore for treatment.

The president then did not delegate the authority to him in writing, but had asked him verbally to chair the meeting.

Tinggom told reporters that the CEC meeting had agreed to hold a national council meeting — the party's highest decision-making body — on June 9 but the venue has not been decided yet "to resolve once and for all the urgent matters and issues" facing the party.

He said the party's elected representatives were concerned at the gravity of certain matters related to the last state elections, the sacking of the member of parliament for Bintulu, Tiong King Sing, the writ of seizure and sale on the party's property, internal party administration and the conduct of the party secretary-general.

Still a party member

Malaysiakini understands from a CEC member, former senator Michael Bong — who is also Wong's brother-in-law — that the party president is expected to return from Sydney, where he is recuperating from a successful knee-cap operation, on June 12, three days before a CEC meeting which he has asked the secretary-general to call.

Bong told malaysiakini that he might call a press conference within the next few days to make certain revelations on internal party communications between the president and some senior party leaders. He, however, did not elaborate.

The on-going squabble within Snap has been making front-page news in local newspapers and has also created interest in national newspapers for several weeks since the walk-out by eight Snap elected representatives led by Tinggom from a CEC meeting chaired by Wong on April 20.

The walk-out was precipitated by the sacking of Tiong, and the Tinggom-Mawan group later said they could not go along with any decision that had denied an individual 'the law of natural justice' by not investigating further into the complaints against the MP through an independent panel of inquiry.

They questioned the speed with which the party president and his men made the decision to expel Tiong.

In today's local newspapers, Tiong was quoted as saying that he still considered himself as a Snap member as he has appealed to the party's national council against the CEC decision.