Youth chief explains SPDP’s woes

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KUCHING: Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) Youth chief Robert Ayu has taken to task its secretary general Khairuddin Abdul Kadir for speaking about the crisis gripping the party without knowing the full facts of the situation on Tuesday.

“Khairuddin should not make comments on matters that he has no idea about. He is ignorant of the fact that the president has no power under SPDP Constitution to ‘re-instate any individual who has been sacked from the party,” said Robert in a statement released to The Borneo Post yesterday.

He also took former deputy Youth chief of the party Phillip Ngo to task for saying that the Women Wing chief had erred in moving the vote of no confidence against the president because he like Khairuddin was not a member of the Supreme Council and was in no position to make informed comments on this issue.

“Philip claimed that the action of the Wanita Exco tantamount to not respecting the president as well as deviating from the objective of strengthening the state Barisan Nasional (BN). Dragging BN, and dropping names of the Chief Minister or Prime Minister into party issues had already been clearly stated previously as outright naughty and unethical.”

Explaining the causes of the crisis besetting the party Robert said, “The issue surrounding the party stems from the unconstitutional, non-consultative, non-consensual and unprecedented conduct of Tan Sri William Mawan, in hastily rushing the alleged ‘re-instatement of the sacked G4’ without as much as discussing it properly with the Supreme Council much less the members at AGM. Mawan’s unilateral action is responsible for the problems faced by the party and no one else. He should face reality and accept the full consequences for bringing SPDP towards the brink of disintegration. As an ineffectual leader, he should step down as president immediately.”

On claims by Khairuddin that Mawan had explained to Supreme Council members the readmission of the sacked G4 members thrice Robert pointed out, “Khairuddin should be able to differentiate that what Mawan did on the 19th March at Merdeka Palace was not an explanation to the Supreme Council and Wanita members. It was merely a declaration that ‘the marriage was already done’. Mawan was referring to the signing ceremony on the issuance of the ‘Re-instatement Certificates’ to the sacked G4. In fact, the ceremony was secretly conducted much earlier without the knowledge and agreement of the majority of Supreme Council members. Everyone was hoodwinked by Mawan. Khairuddin is ignorant of the fact the ‘Re-instatement Certificates’ awarded to the G4 has no particular value as it is not an instrument of the SPDP Party. It never existed until Mawan invented it.

“For the record, the Supreme Council meeting on the 23rd February, did not give any mandate to the President to ‘Re-instate the Sacked G4’. The Supreme Council would never foolishly condone any form of breaching the Party Constitution. The unilateral act by Mawan to ‘re-instate the sacked G4’ is a clear breach of the constitution as the meeting did not receive any application from any of the ‘sacked G4’ to re-join the party.

“How then could the mandate to ‘re-instate the sacked G4’ be accorded to Mawan when there was never any application from any of the sacked G4 in the first place? The meeting was also never informed of any intention from the sacked G4 to re-join the party. Khairuddin and Philip Ngo should get their facts right and to be careful with making comments derived from third party sources.”

The Youth chief added that it was unbelievable that the president could give an explanation to branch leaders and councillors on March 27 at his ministry’s office, but never thought it worthy to do so to his Supreme Council members.

“He should have called for an urgent Supreme Council meeting as that is the proper forum for him to explain his so-called ‘presidential move’ of ‘re-instating the sacked G4’.

“It is baffling that Mawan has still not faced the Supreme Council members till today despite the fact that he was ‘encouraged’ to do so by several top leaders.”