‘Rebels’ Not Out To Topple Mawan

Sarawak Progressive Democrative Party (SPDP) treasurer-general Tiong King Sing has accused the 'rebel' assemblymen of creating discord within the party.

KUCHING: The “five rebels” in the Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) have denied allegations that they are out to topple the party leadership.

Tasik Biru assemblyman Peter Nansian said there was “no talk” of a challenge against party president William Mawan during a post-mortem meeting held by the “rebels”, who are better known as the “SPDP 5”.

Nansian is among the “SPDP 5”. The others are assemblymen Sylvester Enteri (Marudi), Rosey Yunus (Bekenu), Paulus Gumbang (Batu Danau) and Tiki Lafe (Mas Gading MP).

Said Nansian, who is also a SPDP senior vice-president: “There was no such talk. We just asked what they (party leaders) were doing.

“It has been six weeks since the state election and we have not had a post-mortem.”

Nansian was commenting on reports in the local Chinese daily which quoted SPDP treasurer-general Tiong King Sing as saying that the five were out to sabotage Mawan’s presidency.

Tiong told reporters here that the five were out to create discord within the party.

Denying it, Nansian said: “Just let them say what they want to say.”

It is common knowledge that Nansian and the other rebels are unhappy with Tiong’s influence over Mawan.

It was reported that speculations are rife that the five were thinking of challenging Mawan in the next party election because they see Mawan as a weak leader who cannot make decisions without refering to Tiong, who is also Bintulu MP.

It is also understood that Tiong is the principal funder of SPDP.

It is also believed that Tiong backed Mawan’s decision to appoint his own man Nelson Balang Rining as party secretary-general despite a promise made to retain Enteri. This led to the crisis in January last year.

The “SPDP 5”, together with three other supreme council members, staged a walkout during a meeting in protest against Mawan’s decision to replace Enteri.

The five assemblymen subsequently stopped attending all party activities for the whole of 2010.

SPDP Post-Mortem

In a statement on Sunday following their meeting, the “SPDP 5” had expressed concern over Mawan’s “deafening silence” since the April 16 polls. They also wanted to know the party’s future plans.

“Every party has discussed its performance in the April 16 election, its losses and victories and even its future direction, but not the SPDP.

“We are very concerned with the deafening silence,” they said.

SPDP is the only Barisan Nasional (BN) ally which has not held a post-mortem regarding its performance in the April polls.

In the election, SPDP lost two of its strongholds. The biggest casualty was Mawan’s strongman, Peter Nyarok.

Nyarok lost his Krian seat to PKR’s Ali Biju. The other SPDP seat was in Ba’Kelalan.

Mawan’s handpicked Willie Liau lost to Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian.

Ironically, SPDP’s three rebel state assemblymen, including Nansian, retained their seats with bigger margins against Mawan’s own waning popularity in his home constituency Pakan.

Many have speculated that the emboldened five may also seek to reignite their bid to merge with Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS).

At the height of the crisis with Mawan last year, the five had attempted to join PRS.

But PRS president James Masing, fearing criticism, declined to take them in.

In the recent election, however, it was learnt that the four assemblymen had received financial help from both PRS and Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), further confirming long-held views that the five were PBB plants in SPDP.

Meanwhile, Mawan yesterday announced that the party would conduct a post-mortem on its performance in the recent election after a supreme council meeting next month.

- FMT