Sarawak National Party (Snap) Youth has accused some senior Sarawak Barisan Nasional leaders of having the habit now of "going after the weak, the inexperienced and immature" whenever there are signs of disagreement or dissent within their ranks.

Snap Youth secretary Giendam Tait said in a statement to malaysiakini last night that these BN leaders "look like they have nothing much to do except to go after the weak, the inexperienced and the immature".

"This is certainly not something heroic. They are behaving like bullies bent on suppressing and clamping down on freedom of expression and dissent," he said.

Tait was referring to the criticism by Sarawak United People's Party (Supp) president Dr George Chan, Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) president William Mawan and de-registered Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) information chief Dr James Masing against Snap president Edwin Dundang.

The trio, all senior members of the state cabinet, had described Dundang as "'a weak, inexperienced and immature politician" after the latter said there was a need to overhaul the state BN set-up and criticised the ' Politics of Development' advocated by Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud.

Restore democracy

"This is what he meant when in his speech (at the opening of last weekend's national council meeting) our president said that democracy in Sarawak is under threat everyday," Tait explained.

"Now it is our Sarawak ministers who are stifling democracy with their intolerance to disagreement, abuse of position and their arrogance by condemning and threatening the weak and those who dare to speak up against injustices in the kampungs, longhouses and towns."

This was why, the Snap Youth secretary claimed, that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has said it was timely to make, among other things, the restoration of democracy as a priority of his administration.

Before departing Kuching after a day's working visit, the prime minister told reporters that Snap is no longer a member of the BN.

Contacted today, a senior Snap leader said Abdullah's remarks was expected and that they had known it all along.

For this reason, he added, the party had prepared to contest the coming elections and that no one could stop it from contesting any number of seats.