Joseph Tawie
KUCHING: Re-emerging Sarawak National Party (SNAP) has decided to give PKR and its style of politics the boot.
Declaring that PKR leaders were ‘not serious’ about Sarawak politics, SNAP vice president Anthony Liman said they (PKR) was ‘only making use of SNAP’ for their personal interest.
“We have realised that their leaders are making use of us. Their agenda is they want to get to Putrajaya at all cost, while SNAP’s agenda is to get a fair deal for Sarawak.
“We have seen it happen during the 2008 parliamentary election. Like the Barisan Nasional, PKR knew that Sabah and Sarawak were important ‘fixed deposits’.
“We thought PKR could have taken away some of the ‘fixed deposits’ from Sarawak, but their leaders have failed to capitalize on the opportunity.
“Instead they concentrated more in Peninsular Malaysia. They are not serious about Sarawak,” said Liman, who is also SNAP’s director of communications.
He said in the coming state election, SNAP will stand alone as it cannot rely on PKR for support.
“SNAP is ready to fight for the 28 Dayak seats on its own,” Liman stressed.
Meeting with Jeffrey
Liman was speaking to newsmen after briefing United Borneo Front (UBF) Jeffrey Kitingan and its founders Zainal Ajamain and Nilakrisna James at the SNAP headquarters here on Wednesday.
They were meeting SNAP to discuss the Borneo alliance that could spearhead the Borneo Agenda.
Said Liman: “As a very junior partner, SNAP’s role and contributions were not recognized.
“There were time when they (PKR) forgot even to acknowledge our presence at a function.
“I used to listen to Anwar Ibrahim and attended their dinners. I thought he was serious about capturing Sarawak and to change the state government.
“But after the PKR elections, I found out their agenda is different. Many withdrew their support for PKR,” he said.
Touching on SNAP’s rebranding exercise, he said the response to campaign was encouraging especially from the ex-members of Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS).
(PBDS was formed by a group of SNAP members when Daniel Tajem was expelled from the party in July 1983. Now these members are coming back to SNAP after PBDS was deregistered on Oct 21, 2002.)
Tajem to head Sarawak UBF
Meanwhile a delighted Jeffrey said UBF as a non-partisan group will align with any party who is willing to assist pursue the Borneo Agenda and UBF’s core demands through parliament.
“I am happy that SNAP is prepared to work with UBF to pursue this agenda. We’ve appointed Daniel Tajem as the UBF leader in Sarawak.
“Tajem will consolidate the forces and Sarawak to promote UBF through “Borneo Tea parties”, the government and the media,” he said.
The UBF under its Borneo Agenda wants the federal government to establish a “compliance mechanism” vide a ministry or an enacted body to implement their core objective and core demands stated herein and comply with Article VIII of the Malaysia Agreement.
It demands for a fairer and more equitable revenue sharing formula including a review of the percentage of oil net revenue as well as fair and equitable representation and role in parliament/federal cabinet/judiciary and the civil and diplomatic services.
Jeffrey said the UBF agenda also demands for the restoration of equal partnership status for Sabah and Sarawak in the federation and the abolishment of Cabotage, Transport and Trade policies that negatively affect the Borneo states.
Other demands include ‘respect and implementation’ of native rights/NCR and Articles 153 of the Federal Constitution and for a shift in the economic development focus to Sabah and Sarawak including the narrowing of the economic and digital divides between Malaya and Sabah and Sarawak.
Jeffrey said under the agenda, the UBF wants the government to resolve the illegal immigrants (PTI) and “Project IC” problems and the threat to territorial integrity of Sabah and Sarawak including the passing of the heaviest deterrent sentence on crimes related to the issuance of citizenship to illegal immigrants.
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