SPDP, SUPP ready to do battle to defend what are rightly theirs

Hardly a week after Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) spilled the beans on its six candidates for Tasik Biru, Krian, Pakan, Marudi, Meluan and Ba’ Kelalan in the next state election, former chief William Mawan, who now heads rival Parti Tenaga Rakyat Sarawak (Teras), attempted a public display of defiance.

Fielding questions from reporters covering the opening ceremony of the State Legislative Assembly sitting, he said he is confident that Teras will be given extra seats on top of the five they are now holding.

“Maybe two to three more seats,” said Mawan, hinting like he often did that state BN chairman and Chief Minister Adenan Satem will see to that.

But when asked to comment on SPDP’s naming of his former private secretary Brian Fung to contest in Pakan, a non-too comfortable Mawan side-stepped the question, saying he is the incumbent.

Ever since Mawan abandoned SPDP, bringing along with him four other assemblymen – Peter Nansian (Tasik Biru), Sylvester Entri (Marudi), Rosey Yunus (Bekenu) and Paulus Palu Gumbang (Batu Danau) – his former party has been adamant about defending for BN all eight seats traditionally allocated to it.

SPDP president Tiong King Sing’s argument is that as an opposition party, Teras can contest any number of seats it wants.

The other three seats are Krian and Ba’ Kelalan, which are respectively held by PKR’s Ali Biju and Baru Bian, and Meluan, whose incumbent is party-less Wong Judat.

Besides Brian, SPDP’s other candidates are lawyer Cila Nasu for Tasik Biru, lawyer Kilat Beriak for Krian, a senior civil servant with a PhD for Marudi, lawyer Fabian Andrew Sigar for Ba’ Kelalan and UK graduate and businessman Belayong Jampong for Meluan.

According to an insider, the SPDP leadership is keeping its candidates for Bekenu and Batu Danau as “a last minute shocker”.

“SPDP is ready to do battle with Teras or any other opposition parties in these eight seats,” an uncompromising Tiong was said to have declared earlier in the month.

If Tiong, who only took over the SPDP leadership late last year, exudes so much confidence and appears primed for a do-or-die battle, Mawan’s claim of a possible “two to three more seats” looks more like an attempt to boost a sagging spirit.

Mawan comes across as a man battle-scarred and his and Teras’ future is entirely “…up to the chief minister”.

Like Mawan, Wong Soon Koh and company in United People’s Party (UPP) also put their fate “to the wisdom of the state BN chairman”.

Rival Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) is as uncompromising as SPDP.

Only last week, even as the leaders of UPP were congratulating each other on the so-called greenlight from Adenan for the party to pick its winnable candidates, its roadside signboards with the BN ‘dacing’ logo in Sibu were taken down.

The Youth Wing of SUPP Bawang Assan and Pelawan branches, condemning the “abuse of the dacing” by a non-BN member, uprooted the two signboards and handed them over to the police.

State elections can be called any time between now and June next year and there is no sign of a truce between warring members of Adenan’s BN-plus government. — Jimmy Adit