KUCHING: Given time, the internal bickering in Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) and Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) will come to an end.
This optimism was expressed by state Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman Tan Sri Datuk Amar Adenan Satem during a press conference at Wisma Bapa Malaysia yesterday.
The Chief Minister said he would continue with his efforts to get both parties to patch up despite the continued bickering even after he had made the attempt to get leaders of the parties to come together and make up.
“If I don’t think it is going to be successful, I will not start it (the effort of patching up both parties),” said Adenan.
SUPP has been embroiled in a power struggle since its party election in December 2011 when the faction led by its Sibu chief Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh boycotted it with the then six of its elected representatives (now five).
The faction has since been challenging the legitimacy of SUPP president Tan Sri Peter Chin and the central working committee the latter is leading.
SPDP on the other hand, first faced the problem of internal strife in 2011 when five of its elected representative who called themselves the Group of Five or G5 (now G4) disagreed with president Tan Sri William Mawan over several matters and were subsequently sacked.
In the March cabinet upon prompting of Adenan, Mawan and G5 leader Datuk Sylvester Entrie agreed to bury the hatchet through the symbolic gesture of hugging each other.
It was followed by the return of G5 to the fold of SPDP as ordinary members.
The return of the former leaders however, was met with strong objection from some leaders who used to support Mawan.
There were even rumours that an extraordinary general meeting would be called tomorrow (April 26) to move a vote of no-confidence against Mawan’s presidency.
On these undercurrents, Adenan denied any knowledge as he “took people at face value”.
He stressed that he would be able to patch up things for both parties but it would take time.
“Yes, we can (settle the internal squabbles of both SPDP and SUPP), all it does is to take time. But we must settle all these things before the coming state election which is probably two or two and half years away,” said Adenan.
Asked if SUPP after achieving unity could win all its lost seats back, Adenan did not answer directly but stressed that it was their only chance.
He further pointed out that if SUPP could not even identify its enemy, it might lose the confidence of state BN.
“SUPP must realise their real political enemies are not each other but DAP. So if you have the difficulty of enemy identification, who needs friends like that?”
Adenan emphasised that it was not his policy to interfere in the internal affairs of the component parties but what his efforts were made to prepare state BN for the state election which is due in 2016.
“But if internal bickering within a component party leads to the weakening of the BN, I as head of the state BN have the right to intervene because it will affect the BN.
“I am the chairman of BN of Sarawak. I cannot leave it alone. Short of that, I cannot interfere anymore in the internal affairs of (component) parties,” said Adenan.