A source close to the SPDP 5 dismisses meeting with PM as speculation
KUCHING: The SPDP 5 will not be meeting Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak today, according to a source from the group which also dismissed reports of the meeting as a cooked up story.
The group comprises Datuk Peter Nansian Ngusie (senior vice-president of SPDP or Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party); vice-presidents namely Datuk Sylvester Entri Muran; Datuk Dr Tiki Lafe and Rosey Yunus as well as Information chief Paulus Palu Gumbang.
Prior to yesterday, bloggers and the local print media reported that the group would be meeting Najib to complain about their party president Tan Sri William Mawan.
It was speculated that the group’s attempt to meet the prime minister was prompted by a show cause letter from the party to Entri for allegedly masterminding a plan to topple the president.
“The (reports of) meeting (with Najib) are just stories made by people with personal interest and agenda. And the bloggers and media played up the issue for cheap thrills and publicity,” the source said.
He also clarified that the SPDP 5 had no intention to topple the president as all they wanted from Mawan was for him to be fair and impartial in making his decision.
They also wanted the president to listen to other views which might be important to the party and not only to views of those close to him, he added.
Troubles had been simmering for some time in SPDP and they boiled over when Mawan replaced Entri with Nelson Balang Rining as secretary-general after the party December 2009 Triennial General Assembly.
It was also said that the SPDP 5 had also been unhappy with their deputy president Datuk Peter Nyarok Entrie, treasurer-general Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing and Nelson because they were close to Mawan.
Talks from the state’s political grapevines indicated that the SPDP 5 had been told to seek a solution to their dispute with their president because the general election is near and any dispute within the Barisan Nasional (BN) may jeopardise ruling coalition’s chances in the coming election.
Political pundits believed that the state BN feared that if the meeting with Najib were to go ahead it could set a precedent for members of any BN component parties to bypass the state leadership to bring their grouses directly to the prime minister.
Last Saturday an English daily reported that the SPDP 5 was on a warpath and intended to meet the Prime Minister to complain about Mawan and another leader.
A solution to the SPDP crisis seemed imminent when on Sept 22, Chief Minister Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud told the press after a state cabinet meeting that Mawan had the full confidence of the party’s leaders and that they had pledged their full backing for the party president.
The assurance from the chief minister did not dampen the fire of discontent in SPDP as since then it seemed to have gone worse culminating with the speculation that the party’s rebel leaders planned to meet the prime minister today to resolve the impasse.
The SPDP 5 members could not be reached for comments yesterday.