SPDP has successfully held its TGA, but members may raise questions if Tiong becomes party president later

Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) has successfully  concluded its triennial general assembly (TGA) in Bintulu.

This is against a background of a troubled period for the party including having to deal with the rebellion staged by five senior members and the losses of two seats to the Opposition in last year’s state election.

Former deputy president Datuk Peter Nyarok’s defeat in Krian to a political novice sent shockwaves within the party and the State Barisan Nasional.

“How could this be?” was the question most asked among the party members considering that Nyarok, an assistant minister in the chief minister’s office then, had done much for the people in Krian since winning the seat in the 1983 state election.

SPDP president Tan Sri William Mawan’s leadership was clearly tested in overcoming the problems from the five senior members or the Gang of Five as they are politically known.

The five – former senior vice president Datuk Peter Nansian, former vice presidents Datuk Sylvester Entrie Muran and Datuk Dr Tiki Lafe, former information chief Paulus Gumbang and former supreme council member Rosey Yunus – had become torns in the flesh and had belittled Mawan’s leadership with their accusations and statements.

They accused Mawan of being controlled by Bintulu Member of Parliament Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing, who has just been elected deputy president of the party at the TGA, in leading the party.

As cool as an ice, Mawan denied the labelling, saying that he has his own mind, but of course, he has to consult other party leaders on the party affairs and policies.

At the end of the day, he has to make his own decisions.

And for those who have known Mawan, they know that he has a strong personality and a person who is willing to listen to suggestions.

“That is how he works and leads,” explains his close friend.

His accommodative style, perhaps, is being used to attack him as is the case when the Gang of Five accused him of being a weak leader.

But the show of support accorded to him at the TGA was proof that the accusation was baseless and trivial.

One clear sign that came out of the TGA was that the party has recovered from its internal crisis, with the delegates giving their full support to the party’s leadership.

The crisis, which started soon after the 2009 TGA, has threatened to break the party apart since the Gang of Five, apart from being the Wakil Rakyat, had strong support among the grassroots.

In fact, all of them recorded increased number of votes in the April 16, 2011 state election while Mawan (Pakan) and another state assemblyman Wong Judat (Meluan) registered decreased number of votes.

The increases in the number of votes which the Gang of Five individually obtained showed their popularity among the grassroots.

The election of some faces into the supreme council at the TGA is an indication that the party is changing in tandem with the situation, and at the same time, the old guards were still retained because of their experiences and to guide the up and coming leaders.

The election of Tiong, BN Backbencher Club chairman, as the deputy president is well received by the delegates. In fact, his name was the only one nominated to contest the post while Nyarok decided to step aside for him to take over.

If Mawan decides to step down as party president, one day, Tiong would be the natural choice to take over, and this is where succession issue could be questioned.

There is no doubt that Tiong is a good and respected leader. The support from the Dayaks in his Bintulu constituency is beyond questioned because he has gained their confidence and the leader they can rely on.

If indeed Tiong succeeds Mawan as president later, his position in SPDP will be similar to that of the late Datuk Amar James Wong Kim Min in the Sarawak National Party (SNAP) in 1981.

When the late  Wong took over as SNAP president from Datuk Amar Dunstan Endawie in 1981, many educated young Dayak leaders left the party, leading to the formation of Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak in 1983.

Among them were Tan Sri Leo Moggie, Datuk Seri Daniel Tajem and the late Joseph Samuel.

They reasoned that since SNAP drew most of its members from the Dayak community, its president should also be a Dayak.

Since Wong becoming president, SNAP has gone through crisis after crisis, and the members who did not agree with his leadership simply left and formed their own party.

Apart from Moggie and his supporters, the others who also left were former senior vice president Dr Patau Rubis and his supporters, and they formed State Reform Party in 1996.

The leadership tussle between Wong and Mawan led to the deregistration of SNAP in 2002. After SNAP was deregistered Mawan formed SPDP while Wong took the deregistration to court which in later years quashed the order of the Registrar of Societies (ROS).

What was happening in SNAP should be a valuable lesson to SPDP. What the present and future leadership of the party should know is that special recognition and consideration must be accorded to the Dayak members.

Wong failed to give special considerations to the Dayaks in the party because he treated all members, regardless of their racial origins, equally.  This is a mistake because the Dayaks, although they have the numbers, they are not as politically and economically advanced as the Chinese and Malays.

Ends