A senior member of Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud's Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu(PBB) has criticised crisis-ridden Sarawak National Party's James Wong Kim Min, fighting for his political survival, of using outsiders as scapegoats for his present political predicament.

"Snap members have openly delivered a verdict for James Wong to go," PBB assemblyperson for Simunjan and supreme council member Mohd Narodeen Majais said in a statement published in local newspapers in response to Wong's criticism of Abdul Taib for what he described as his tacit encouragement to his detractors to go against him.

"The ultimate deciders of any political organisation are the members who send their representatives as delegates and observers. And the vast majority of Snap delegates and observers have spoken out loud and clear. There is no necessity to look for a scapegoat outside the party," added Narodeen, who is also chairman of the Sarawak Backbenchers Club.

In a report in the Sarawak Tribune , he said enlarging the issue and dragging everybody into the Snap crisis could be likened to a drowning man clutching at straws.

"Most past leaders knew when it was time to leave. If a leader wants to be respected by his party members, he should leave when there is a vociferous voice calling for him to step down. And if he ignores such call, he will inevitably be booted out," stressed Narodeen.

Ridiculous beyond words

He said putting the blame on anyone outside the party for its crisis was 'ridiculous beyond words.'

"First, [Datuk Amar] Wong said it was a storm in a teacup. Secondly, he said the democratically elected Snap ADUNs (state assembly representatives) and MPs are ungrateful to him. Thirdly, he sacked some and served others show-cause letters with a view to expel them. Fourthly, he applied for court injunction to prevent them from calling for an EGM. Fifthly, he labelled them as plotters in a coup. Sixthly, he blamed the State BN leadership for not undoing all the damage he had inflicted. Seventhly, he did not take heed of the hint from the Prime Minister, who is a much younger man than he, to step down. Such advice was given when the Prime Minister was officiating at the opening of the PBB Convention. Lastly, he has to pay the heavy price for grossly misreading the clear writing on the wall," Narodeen said in a statement. He pointed out that it was "most regrettable" Wong did not know the meaning of coup d'etat .

" Coup d'etat is a military take-over of a civilian government. What actually transpired was that William Mawan's group inflicted a coup de grace . Different terminologies bring almost different meanings and different implications," Narodeen said.

He added that no one more than Wong himself resented any attempt by anybody to comment on the internal affairs of Snap, let alone interfere.

Disastrous consequences

He himself applied for and was granted a court injunction to gag everyone so that no one could make any comment on Snap. And he repeated for umpteenth times what happened to his party was a storm in a tea cup, Narodeen said.

"In saying so repeatedly, he shows he does not want anybody to poke their nose into his organisation."

Narodeen said the whole crisis in Snap was triggered by the dismissal of a democratically elected Member of Parliament for Bintulu, who, at one time, was a treasurer-general of Snap, appointed by none other than Wong himself. Such a dismissal, Narodeen added, triggered a chain reaction among the other democratically elected Snap members, causing irreparable damage to the party and irreversibly leading to the destruction of Snap.

No State BN chairman could be reasonably expected to back this course of action without disastrous consequences to the State BN as a whole, he noted.

Narodeen said if the rationale of this course of action was to be brought to its logical conclusion, the State BN leadership had to dismiss members of the State Cabinet all but one of the Snap elected state assembly members.

"This will swell the ranks of the opposition in the Dewan Undangan Negeri (state legislative assembly) from one to six," he said.

New committe's first meeting

Meanwhile, William Mawan, the newly-elected 'president' of SNAP said the party's central executive committee (CEC), set up after the Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) on August 11, held its first meeting yesterday to finalise minutes of the EGM for submission to the Registrar of Societies (ROS), to address issues on party membership and the administration of the new office.

He told a local English-langauge daily Sarawak Tribune after the CEC meeting that the appointment of members to the CEC would not be finalised until they could work out a balance on the social interest programmes as there was no rush to do so.

"We have appointed Dr Roland Matu as a CEC member for the northern region but apart from that, the positions for other CEC members are being left vacant for the moment," said Mawan.

"We also have to look into who runs what and also to assess the overall administrative issues such as posting to government agencies and positions with regards to local councils for councillors. Appointment for the current local councillors have been extended until December this year," he added.

On whether his group would take over the Snap headquarters, Mawan said they would approach things step by step.

"We have to wait for the decision of the ROS and abide by it. Meanwhile, we will continue with our own administrative set-up using a new place. We are looking at various aspects to streamline our organisation and we will respond to the demands and issues raised by our members", he added.

TONY THIEN is malaysiakini correspondent in Kuching.