Larry Sng
KUCHING: Sarawak Workers Party (SWP) will one day be a member of the State Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalition, which now only comprises Democratic Action Party (DAP), Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS).
SWP president Larry Sng yesterday reiterated that joining PR was on the cards, and it was only a matter of timing.
However, he did not give any hint on when the party would officially join the opposition front but some political observers anticipated that it would most likely take place before the next state polls.
“I strongly believe that the opposition parties by now must have realised that they cannot fight the mighty Barisan Nasional (BN) alone, but need to form a more solid coalition because if they are in the same boat one thing they can avoid is overlapping claims of seats unlike in the past where opposition parties used to square off with one another in several seats.
“This to me will cause a split of votes and certainly it will be to their disadvantage like what we have seen in many past elections,” an anonymous observer asserted to The Borneo Post here yesterday.
Sng, in his brief text via short messaging system (SMS), also agrees that what the opposition parties should try to avoid most in the next state election is overlapping claim of seats like in the last parliamentary election.
In last year’s general election, SWP which claims to be a multiracial party and officially registered with the Registrar of Societies (ROS) on April 2, 2012, contested in all the six constituencies held by Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) and none of them saw a straight fight.
Except for Sri Aman, which saw a four-cornered fight between BN-PRS, SWP, PKR and an independent candidate, the other five seats namely Lubok Antu, Julau, Kanowit, Selanggau and Hulu Rajang were all three-cornered fights between BN-PRS, SWP and PKR.
In that general election, SWP failed miserably in the attempted ouster of PRS president Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Masing from office.
Besides losing in all the six seats it contested, three of SWP candidates also lost their deposits.