Sarawak-based State Reform Party (Star) today offered to give way to other opposition parties contesting against the Barisan Nasional in the coming parliamentary elections in Sarawak if it helps to increase the opposition's chances of winning.

"We are prepared even not to contest in areas where we have grassroots support to ensure a one-to-one contest against the BN," Star president and former state assistant minister Dr Patau Rubis told malaysiakini.

According to Patau, the opposition would not gain in any way if there are multi-cornered contests among them and the ruling party as this would only split the opposition vote. He described the ruling coalition as formidable, especially with the resources at their command.

He said some leaders in the opposition parties were of like mind on the subject of electoral co-operation "but the majority could still not bring themselves to do the same".

Patau formed Star in 1996 after he was sacked by Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud on grounds of alleged indiscipline from the state cabinet.

In touch with some

He said it was still not too late for them to sit down and talk seriously about it.

"I am in touch with some, but I cannot go into details as yet," he added.

In the 1999 general election, the party fielded candidates in four parliamentary seats in Sarawak and one in Sabah. It performed credibly in many of them, although it failed to win any seat.

Asked whether the party would be contesting the parliamentary elections, widely expected soon, he said Star would have to decide on credible candidates willing to put up their own finance as the party was too poor to fund any campaign.

"We are a financially poor party," he added.

"If not for money politics, we would have won in some of the seats in 1999," he added.

'Politics of Inclusion'

He said the party was committed to a long-term struggle in getting the rural electorate to change their mind-set to reject electoral hand-outs.

Patau described the "Politics of Development" advocated by the state BN government and the chief minister as negative politics pursued by the desire to divide-and-rule.

Instead, he added, the state government should advocate the "Politics of Inclusion" which he explained means "everybody should be included, the weak and poor, the rich and the strong, and that anybody can be chief minister without any consideration to their race or creed."

According to informed sources, Patau is expected to contest in the Mambong parliamentary constituency, where the incumbent Dr James Dawos is widely rumoured to be replaced by a senior Dayak police officer presently serving in Kuala Lumpur.

Patau's hometown is Bau but the state constituency Tasik Biru which he used to represent when still in BN has been incorporated as part of the new seat of Mambong.

In the 1999 parliamentary elections, he stood in Masing Gading on a Star ticket but lost by a 3,280-vote margin to BN's Dr Tiki Lafe who polled 10,584 votes.

The Sarawak National Party (Snap), meanwhile, has spurned a DAP proposal for some kind of an electoral understanding. Its leader Edwin Dundang was quoted in the Borneo Post today as saying that the party would prefer to go it alone, but concentrating only in Dayak-majority seats.