TAN SRI WILLIAM MAWAN
BAU: Datuk Peter Nansian, one of the four elected representatives who ‘quit but not resign’ from SPDP, will not be recommended to defend Tasik Biru come the next state election.
This revelation was made by SPDP president Tan Sri William Mawan during a dinner here on Friday, and he also announced that the party’s Supreme Council would decide at a meeting in Kuching today on the fate of the dissenting group.
Short of saying that this group would be sacked from the party, he said the party wanted to formalise the status of this group to diffuse any confusion arising from their recent statement of quitting but not resigning from the party.
“On the issue, I have already decided that we would convene the Supreme Council meeting of this party, a component of Barisan Nasional, on this Sunday to decide on formalising our relationship with them because they are just quitting but not resigning, meaning they are neither here nor there.
“We will reveal our decision (on Sunday), we will formalise our relationship (because) there’s a very thin line there (on their current status),” he said at the 2012 New Year Dinner for Jagoi Bratak Community Leaders’ at the Civic Centre here.
Nansian, assemblypersons Rosey Yunus (Bekenu) and Paulus Palu Gumbang (Batu Danau), and Mas Gading MP Datuk Dr Tiki Lafe announced in a statement last week that they quit SPDP and formed Kelab Barisan Nasional (BN Club) as their new platform.
They are also part of the so-called ‘SPDP5’ who had been at odds with Mawan since January 2010. One of them, Datuk Sylvester Entrie, was sacked by the party in November last year for insubordination.
Mawan said new faces were expected to be fielded by the party in both Mas Gading and Tasik Biru and the party was not short of qualified and credible people to choose as candidates.
“I have always said that it doesn’t have to be Dr Tiki (for Mas Gading), nobody can hijack the party’s seats. And in the next state election, it doesn’t have to be Datuk Peter Nansian (for Tasik Biru), and I am speaking in Bau now (which is their home base).”
With the parliamentary election now just around the corner, he said SPDP had been asked by the BN top leadership to put its house in order and strengthen the party in order to face the onslaught of the opposition. Because of this, he said, important decisions needed to be made even if it might not be to everyone’s liking.
In his speech, Mawan also did not mince his words when commenting about Dr Tiki, Nansian and the rest of the SPDP5 group.
On Dr Tiki, Mawan said he had helped Dr Tiki a lot ever since his election debut in 1999 until he became who he is today. Mawan added that he and Nansian even established an additional operations centre to aid Dr Tiki in 2008.
“I remember coming here a long time ago mainly to support Datuk Dr Tiki. He was not even a Datuk then, he was only a doctor. I came here to support him, I introduced him, I plucked him up from somewhere to bring him up and make him the candidate.”
As for Nansian, he said he stood firm in retaining Nansian as a candidate in last April’s state election despite the fact that there was already internal squabbles in SPDP at that time.
“I got to really put Datuk Peter Nansian squarely in the box … I put my foot down, that we would have only candidate, and that was Datuk Peter Nansian.
“It’s not because there are not many qualified professionals or credible committed people from Jagoi Bratak or Singai. We got him nominated, we got him to win, he was appointed Assistant Minister, he got his Datukship…but he’s not here tonight.”
He was also confident that the Mas Gading seat would remain a BN stronghold, stressing that there should not be any problem in maintaining the support of the majority for the BN.
“The problem is those people whom we support, whom the rakyat had supported, they grew horns. Never get yourself swallowed up by your ego, by your emotions. The people expect you to get things done, respond to their needs.”
Also present at the dinner were Bung Bratak Heritage Association chairman Dato Peter Minos, and the three potential candidates for Mas Gading namely Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Tourism Datu Ik Pahon Joyik, Sarawak Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority (Salcra) deputy general manager Anthony Nogeh and Zecon general manager Rayan Narong.