We may seek alliance with other parties in future, says Jugol

Kuching  (Jan 15, 2012):  Sarawak National Party (SNAP) does not rule out the possibility of  seeking an alliance with other political parties in future, its newly elected president Stanley Jugol said yesterday.

“Politics is such that it is very fluid, anything can happen. So we don’t rule out such possibility,” he told reporters after the party’s 17^th triennial general meeting here.

He added:”We believe in a two-party system. We can be either part of the ruling Barisan Nasional or the Pakatan Rakyat.”

Jugol said SNAP, however, had abandoned a proposal to merge with the DAP “because we found it to be not workable”.

“We also believe in the Borneo Agenda as propagated by Sabah politician Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan.

“We believe that Sarawak has been deprived of many things under the 18 Point Agreement which formed the basis for Sarawak to form the Federation of Malaysia,” he said.

“But for now, we want to consolidate our strengths by regularising our party divisions.

“We need to do this because after the party has split many times before, we are not sure who our members are,” Jugol said.

 He said only genuine members would be allowed to hold office in the divisions.

Meanwhile, Jugol and other office bearers of the party were all elected unopposed.

The deputy president is accountant Kebing Wan while the senior vice president is hotelier Johnny Wong Sie Lee.

The five vice presidents are retired senior customs officer Frankie Jurem Nyombui, lawyers  Dayrell Walter Entrie and Anthony Liman Sujang, businessman Roland Teo Yuk Tong and oil palm plantation manager Dan Giang.

Former Sessions Court judge Augustine Liom and retired state welfare officer Abang Othman Abang Gom were made the appointed vice presidents.

Jurem was also appointed the new secretary-general while Datuk Seri Dennis Chang Foh Onn remains as the treasurer-general.

The post of deputy secretary-general went to Paul Kadang with Entalai Munan as the deputy treasurer-general.

The organising secretary went to Lucius Jimbon, publicity officer to Lawrence Cosmas Sunang and financial officer,  Simijie Janting.

Jugol said the new line-up consisted of veterans party members and new faces, who were professionals.

He brushed aside criticisms that today’s TGM was illegally held because the Registrar of Societies (ROS) had not completed its investigation into claims of irregularities by one of its former members Michael Lias.

Today’s TGM was a postponement from the Sept 15, 2011 after it was found that Lias, who was contesting for the president’s post, was found to be a member of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) as well.

Lias insisted that he was a SNAP member.

He had also lodged a report with ROS that he had every right to contest a post in the party.

SNAP constitution does not allow dual membership.

Lias, in his press statement, called today’s TGM illegal and urged party members to stay away from it.

Jugol said Lias had right to call on party members to stay away from the TGM since he was no longer a member of the party. by Sematong Express

Baru says clonal rubber seeds do not exist, disputes claims by DLT Group of Companies

Media Statement by Baru Bian

13 January 2012

Clonal Rubber Seeds do not exist

I refer to an item in the Borneo Post dated 11 January 2012 page D1 headlined ‘15 million 1Malaysia Rubber Clone Seeds for adoption’ in which the DLT Group of Companies is reported to be offering 1Malaysia Rubber Clone Seeds for adoption to any interested farmers in the state under the Rubber Seeds Adoption Programme purportedly “the fruit of work, research and development”. This is also reported in Sin Chew Daily on 11 January 2012 at page 7.

I have been informed by highly knowledgeable consultants that there is no such thing as a ‘clonal seed’ because any seed produced by the cloned tree does not necessarily bear the characteristics of that clonal parent. All the seed produced from a clonal tree will be different and not necessarily of good quality. It is therefore not accurate to say that the seed are of the 1Malaysia clone or better than any other rubber seed produced from any other rubber tree whether it be cloned or not.

I was informed that the DLT Group of companies is willing to let farmers have the seeds for free but that in order to produce clonal plants for planting and production they must grow the seeds and then graft buds onto them of legitimate clones such as 1Malaysia, PB260, RRIM2023 etc. etc. From where do the DLT Group of Companies expect the farmers to obtain the buds and how much will they have to pay for them? Will the DLT Group of Companies also be supplying buds free of charge?

I would like to advise all farmers that they need not get seed from DLT or any other company or Government Department as all they need to do is collect any seed from any type of rubber tree growing in the jungle, grow it on until it has the stem size of a pencil and then graft onto it a bud from a legitimate and certified clone that is produced from a budwood nursery.

It has been made known to me that the DLT Group of Companies is one of the licensees of the Malaysian Rubber Board who are licensed to produce the 1Malaysia clones and therefore presumably budwood. They would presumably have received some funding from the Board to carry out the production. I would like to propose supplying deserving farmers subsidized or free of charge-cloned buds. At the same time it is crucial that RISDA educate these farmers to do this cloning process.

Something does not seem right in this whole scenario. Firstly, the role of the Rubber Board, if I’m not mistaken, is to help the rural people who wish to plant rubber trees and make some money from the latex. Why then have two private companies been chosen to adopt 1 million and 700,000 seeds and an individual 1 million seeds?  This is helping the big players and not those people who truly need the help. Where does this leave the farmer who has a small plot of land?

Secondly, the way which the DLT Group of companies is conducting their business causes me great alarm as a lot of the farmers will be misled by the claims that they will be given the 1Malaysia clone seeds. After they have been given the seeds, from where will they obtain the high quality buds that they need to graft onto the plants that they grow from these seeds to produce plants for establishment in their smallholdings?

From the press report it appears that the said 1Malaysia clone is very good. It would be helpful to all if Dr. Luhat could furnish us with the performance data of this clone as recorded and reported from field trials in Sarawak and which have been conducted by a reliable testing organization in this State. This would give credence and confidence to all interested parties especially the poor rural farmers. Our rural folk just want to be able to get some good and reliably certified rubber clones so that they can work towards self-sufficiency.

Baru Bian

State Assemblyman

N70 Ba’ Kelalan

Someone higher up is behind crisis in SPDP, claims Baru Bian

Kuching (Jan 11, 2012): Sarawak PKR boss Baru Bian said he believed someone higher up is behind the crisis in Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP.

"If you reporters want to conduct an investigation why the crisis started, there is a lead for you to start.The lead is someone higher up," he told reporters at the party headquarters at Batu Tiga bazaar here today.

Baru, the state assemblyman for Ba'Kelalan, however, declined to identify who he referred to as someone higher up, but suggested that SPDP is being manipulated to trigger the crisis.

"It appears that someone does not want to see SPDP, being a Dayak-based party, stable," he said.

Asked whether the four parliamentary seats now held by SPDP would be wrested by Pakatan Rakyat in the coming general election, Baru said he did not think that PK should advantage of SPDP's weakness.

"We should focus on our strengths and issues that we have raised, not on the weaknesses of other people," he said.

He said the people should give PK a chance to govern the country based on its strengths and agenda for the people.

"Try us. Vote us in the coming election," he said.-Sematong Express

Jabu slammed for his below par performance

Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Alfred Jabu has been slammed for his below par performance as chairman of the state disaster and relief management committee.

"I am very disappointed with him. He keeps on disappearing when Sarawak is under seiged by the floods. So far he has been giving two press conferences regarding the floods and relief assistance,” Sarawak PKR vice chairman See Chee How complained today.

“I must say that his performance as the state disaster and relief management committee chairman is really below par,” the PKR Batu Lintang state assemblyman, told reporters.

He said he had received many complaints from the flood victims of their inability to seek assistance from the state government and the state flood operations room.

He said the operations room should inform the public of its contact numbers to call when there was floods occurring in their areas.

“I personally feel that the disaster and relief management committee is led by a wrong person,” he insisted.

See said former Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan was always on the grounds when he was heading the committee.

“He (Dr Chan) would have a daily press briefing to inform the public, especially those who were staying in low-lying areas,” he said.

See said he was in Siburan last night after receiving calls that some parts of the area were under one metre of water, after a heavy downpour over the last 24 hours.

“They (residents) have been calling their Barisan Nasional’s elected representative to attend to their problems, but nobody came, so they called us,” he said.

Taman Durandah Emas in Siburan, which is under the Bengoh state constituency, was the worst affected area.

See said that there was no problem in areas under Kuching Division.

"I must commend the Kuching Division relief committee. They have done a good job," he said.

He said he was in the dark as to what were happening to the flood victims in other parts of Sarawak because Jabu was not giving out information on them.

See urged Jabu to buck up, and be more responsible towards the flood victims.

Jugol is set to be next SNAP's president

 Outgoing  Sarawak National Party (SNAP) secretary-general Stanley Jugol is set to be the next party’s president as his name was the only one received to contest for the post at the triennial delegates conference this Sunday.

Nominations for all the contested posts closed last Friday.

The party’s credentials committee chairman Frankie Jurem said in the absence of any other candidate for the post, Jugol would automatically be the next party’s president, taking over from Edwin Dundang who declined to seek re-election.

The TDC, originally scheduled to be held on Sept 25 last year, was postponed to Jan 15, 2012 after it was discovered that one of the presidential candidates, Michael Lias, was found to be not a member of the party.

It was revealed that he was a member of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP).

Lias was also a proposer of three other candidates.

Lias has since been sacked from SNAP for dual membership.

Meanwhile, the rest of the elected posts in the party would also be won unopposed.

Former Telang Usan state assemblyman Kebing Wan is be confirmed as deputy president.

He has been the acting deputy president after the sacking of Ting Ling Kiew in 2010 for campaigning for the Barisan Nasional in the Batang Ai by-election in 2009.

Kebing’s name was the only received by the credentials committee to contest for the post.

Hotelier Jimmy Wong would also be returned unopposed as senior vice president, taking over from Kebing.

Jurem said he and four other candidates would be returned unopposed as vice presidents of the party.

Apart from Jurem, the others are oil palm plantation manager Dan Giang,  businessman Walter Dayrell Entrie, lawyer Anthony Liman Sujang and businessman Roland Teo.

The TDC will endorse the eligibility of the candidates.

Jurem said the TDC would also be discussing plans and strategies for the coming general election anticipated to be called this year. by Sematong Express