Gag order imposed on Snap leaders in Sarawak cabinet

comments     Tony Thien     Published     Updated

Squabbling Sarawak National Party (Snap) leaders who are members of the state cabinet one minister and two assistant ministers have been told to cease making public statements on the on-going party crisis as it could reflect badly on the cabinet.

Malaysiakini understands that the cabinet at its meeting last week discussed the on-going crisis in one of the Sarawak Barisan Nasional component parties.

Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud told the Minister of Environment and Public Health William Mawan (photo), who is Snap vice-president, Assistant Minister of Infrastructure Development Dr Judson Sakai Tagal, who is Snap Youth leader, and Assistant Minister of Tourism Peter Nyarok, who is Snap vice-president, to put a stop to all press statements on the party crisis.

Taib is understood to have told his cabinet colleagues from Snap that he would not interfere in the party crisis unless it affects the stability of the ruling Sarawak BN. He had been reported as saying that he would like to see an end to the squabbling between the two rival factions as quickly as possible.

But comments attributed to Taib as reported by some local newspapers that he was confused as to who is now the president of Snap following a flurry of Snap meetings called by the two factions had drawn criticisms from Snap members supporting party president James Wong Kim Min.

Snap Tasik Biru Youth chief Granda Aing told malaysiakini he was baffled how Taib as BN chief in Sarawak could be confused as to who really is Snap president, especially after Wong had been invited and acknowledged as the leader by the national BN recently.

Wong, 80, a former state minister, was reported to have met with federal BN secretary-general Mohamad Rahmat today on the on-going Snap crisis.

Meeting illegal

Claiming to be Snap acting president is Wong's deputy Peter Tinggom, the member of parliament for Saratok and a former federal deputy minister, who was elected at a national council meeting called by the faction opposed to Wong last month.

Wong has described the meeting and Tinggom's election as acting president illegal and unconstitutional.

Meanwhile, Wong's faction is going to court again to appeal against the setting aside of the court injunction preventing his detractors from calling and presiding over all meetings, among other things. This will be over questions of party procedures for calling for meetings and the powers of the deputy president in the absence of the president.

The Tinggom group, which include key party leader Mawam, will be holding an extraordinary general meeting on Aug 12 during which it is expected to elect a new set of leaders replacing Wong and the rest in the central executive committee.

This is seen by them as crucial before the party prepares for the triennial delegates conference early next year.

After the crisis came out into the open in April this year, Wong has found himself deserted by all except one of the party's elected representatives, including Mawan, who the rebel faction wants to take over as president immediately.

Compromise

Wong has so far refused to indicate whether he will now want to step down at the triennial general meeting (TGM), and his supporters are even trying to lobby for certain party leaders who are also the targets of the other group to be retained in any new line-up should the two factions agree to sit down and discuss a compromise solution.

Supporters say that Wong, because of his age, is only marking time before stepping down, but their insistence that Wong's eldest son Richard, the state assemblyperson and the party senior vice-president, be elevated to deputy president and the present seccretary-general Justine Jinggut as one of the vice-presidents in any negotiated line-up are likely to be serious stumbling blocks.

"It would seem that between now and the TGM only the Registrar of Societies could determine what the rightful party leader is," according to one political analyst. "But what will happen during the TGM will be another matter.

"If the quarrels continue without end, most likely Snap will end up having two presidents."



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