Sarawak National Party (Snap) deputy president Justine Jinggut has criticised Barisan Nasional secretary-general Mohamed Rahmat for trying to pre-empt the forthcoming BN supreme council's decision on the party's membership status in the ruling coalition.

Justine, a former Ulu Rajang member of parliament and former Snap secretary-general, told malaysiakini :" Mohamed has no authority to make such a statement. He should not try to pre-empt the BN supreme council's decision. He should leave it to the prime minister."

The Snap deputy chief was visibly annoyed by Mohamed's comments reported in local newspapers that the party had to apply if it wanted to rejoin the Barisan Nasional.

No automatic readmission

Mohamed told Bernama in Kuching that Snap would have to exhaust all legal means before the BN could decide on its status.

In the meantime, Snap could not be automatically readmitted into the BN, he said, adding that it has to apply for readmission if it resolves its legal status.

Justine said it was also wrong for Mohamed to compare Snap with the case of Umno which was re-registered by the court in 1987.

"In the case of Snap, the Registrar of Societies (ROS) de-registered the party, and we went to court and the Court of Appeals in Kuala Lumpur has granted a stay of execution pending the final outcome of our application for a judicial review of the ROS' decision."

"Therefore, legally we are still part of the Barisan Nasional," he said, adding that after their meeting with Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Barisan Nasional chairperson in Kuala Lumpur on July 9, they had taken the prime minister's advice and wrote to him the following day to explain the position to him."

Snap president Edwin Dundang had a slightly different interpretation of the letter of explanation to the prime minister, saying that it was for the purpose of ensuring that the party is still considered a member of the BN.

Call for patience

"We've received an assurance from the highest-level of authority, that is the prime minister, and we're very confident," he added.

But he also said that if the party was going to be forced to stay outside the BN they would have no choice but to accept that.

In the meantime, Edwin asked party members to be 'patient and to trust their leaders.'

The Snap's application for a judicial review has twice been postponed by the court, and it is now expected to be heard at year-end.

Snap's anxiousness in seeking its membership status determined as quickly as possible is principally to enable the party to make early preparations for the forthcoming parliamentary elections which, according to Mohamed, could be held by April next year.

Previously, before the formation of the breakaway group Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) led by a former Snap vice-president William Mawan, Snap had four members of parliament, apart from five state assembly representatives.

It is now left with not a single elected representative and, according to most political observers, it will be difficult to get the SPDP to concede even one parliamentary seat to Snap should it be reinstated in BN without a lot of problems on the ground.

Sarawak and Sabah hold their state and parliamentary elections separately. There are 29 parliamentary seats in Sarawak, all under the BN.

Seats in jeopardy

Political observers say that if the problems within the crisis-ridden Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) and Snap are not resolved soon, a number of BN parliamentary seats in Sarawak could be in jeopardy.

With the imminent change of leadership at the centre after Dr Mahathir Mohamad stepped down as prime minister and the general election that will follow soon afterwards, the top leadership is seen as anxious to see that the BN at both state and federal levels remain as intact as before.

This also accounts for the reason that the top BN leadership had engineered the recent resolution to the long and protracted troubles within the Malaysian Chinese Association and also between the MCA and the Penang-based Gerakan over their traditional rivalry for Chinese support.