AGM NUMBER 11: Mawan (centre) about to beat the gong seven times to mark the opening of SPDP 11th AGM at the welcoming dinner on Friday night.
The 5 newcomers can become a threat to established but complacent parties – Mawan
BINTULU: The five political parties in the state that were recently approved by the Registrar of Society (ROS) should not be taken lightly as they can pose a challenge to established parties if they became complacent.
The warning was sounded by SPDP president Tan Sri William Mawan Ikom at the party’s 11th annual general meeting (AGM) in Kemena Plaza Hotel here yesterday.
He urged the party’s divisions and branches to recruit more members, take stock of their situation, and strive to remain relevant to the needs and aspirations of the people.
“When we are stagnant we will soon become irrelevant. Therefore we must review our strategies. We must recruit more members to gauge our popularity and performance.”
Touching on a news portal report that Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) is mulling swapping the Krian state seat that had been allocated to SPDP by Barisan Nasional (BN) but is now under Parti Keadilan Rakyat(PKR), Mawan reiterated that SPDP would not agree to such a proposal.
Mawan viewed the report as an attempt to drive a wedge between SPDP and PBB.
He stressed that only BN members could have any say on the status of the seat, which is part of the Saratok Parliamentary constituency, and anyone wanting to stand in Krian as a BN candidate must be a SPDP member .
On party discipline, the president said the party had to strike a balance between being strict and being accommodative.
“If we act too tough as guided by our constitution and past practices, we will end up with no more members. If we do not take action against errant members, they will be free to do anything, resulting in a free-for-all situation. Therefore, there is a need to strike a balance on what is enough and what is excessive.”
Referring to the only state seat, out of eight it was allocated by BN, the party holds at present, Mawan was confident it would win back the other seven seats in the next state election.
He based his optimism on the party’s performance in the last general election when it won all the four parliamentary seats it contested.
Deputy president Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing who also spoke at the function urged party members to be sincere and genuine in serving the party and not become proxies of outsiders.
Tiong urged women members to prove their worth and leadership capability by working hard in serving the people first before appealing for representation in the BN election candidacy.
“We will review their (women) ability and if we are satisfied we will bring their appeals to the top BN leadership,” said the Bintulu MP.
Tiong disagreed with creating too many automatic or appointed vice president posts in the supreme council to cater for the party’s Youth and Women chiefs.
He pointed out that this was not the practice of many parties in Malaysia and they should just remain as representatives in the supreme council.
Meanwhile, SPDP secretary-general Datuk Nelson Balang Rining disclosed that the party had 92,848 registered members from 63 registered divisions.
Balang also expressed his intention to stand again in Ba Kelalan in the next state election.
Balang said he was never defeated in elections when he was nominated twice as BN candidate there.
Despite winning the seat twice, in the last state election Balang was replaced by Willie Liau at the eleventh hour but Willie lost to Baru Bian of PKR.