Party says cannot work with PR, will not merge with DAP
Stanley Jugol
KUCHING: SNAP has severed all ties with Pakatan Rakyat (PR) and decided to stand on its own, revealed its secretary-general Stanley Jugol.
He said the party could no longer work with PR as it had been sidelined during and after nomination prior to the recently-concluded state election.
As such, he said the merger talks between SNAP and DAP, which the latter proposed immediately after the state polls on April 16, would cease automatically.
“We are now on our own, independent of any alliance with any political party,” Jugol told The Borneo Post here yesterday.
Jugol added that it was meaningless for SNAP to continue to think that it was still a partner of Pakatan as the opposition alliance no longer invited his party to any council meetings or joint activities.
“After we disagreed with PKR over seat allocations, we were no longer invited to any Pakatan meetings or functions,” Jugol said.
He further elaborated that SNAP would stand by itself in the coming general election and face off both the BN and PR.
“After all, we must take pride in ourselves that we are the only Sarawak-based opposition party,” he added.
The fallout between SNAP and PR was due to the collapse of seat negotiations, which saw SNAP and PKR involved in multi-cornered fights with BN in 24 rural seats.
When asked whether his party was applying to rejoin BN, Jugol said so far it had never been invited to rejoin BN although it was part of the BN coalition government before it was deregistered in 2002.
SNAP subsequently appealed the deregistration, and won the case in the High Court last year.
SNAP, which fielded 26 candidates, was wiped out in the April 16 polls, losing deposits in 25 of the seats while PKR won three of the 49 seats contested.
The 50-year-old Dayak-based party was accepted into Pakatan Rakyat about a year ago.
With SNAP gone, DAP, PKR and PAS are now the only state Pakatan members.
The last time SNAP attended a PR joint council meeting was in March at DAP headquarters here to discuss seat allocations for the polls.
Meanwhile, state DAP secretary Chong Chieng Jen, when contacted, said he would only comment after the news had been published today.