Taib thrown lifeline thanks to SNAP’s rhetoric?

ARCHIVES 2011

By admin-s On Jan 23, 2011

Ooi … SNAP in, SNAP out … Sarawakians aren’t amused!

They were part of the reason for Sarawak in Malaysia, then they were in, then out – some even say thrown out – and then almost deregistered, and then they remained out, of the BN, that is.

By Apang

Ooi … SNAP in, SNAP out … Sarawakians aren’t amused!

They were part of the reason for Sarawak in Malaysia, then they were in, then out – some even say thrown out – and then almost deregistered, and then they remained out, of the BN, that is. It was then that they were in wilderness, as orchestrated disintegration of SNAP ensured that those remaining would be weak, financially and thus politically. But those few who remained holding the torch of SNAP were principled, and deserved to be respected. Others had left, or should I say hand-picked for the “greener” pasture of the PBDS. Then it is further torn apart by the few leaders, in the name of Dayak political future. Well, we all can see whether it was Dayak political future or the few individual Dayak’s political future. You can decide, can’t you?

Then it was the Pakatan Rakyat (PR), which they were in, and those same principled few were all talking about the only way forward and all sorts of blah blah blah. Now it is those same few who proclaimed they were out, also with the same blah blah blah. So it is official, SNAP is out of the PR and are supposedly prepared to fight the election on their own.

Insiders said SNAP’s “on their own” is in name only, as their funds will come from sources outside of the party. There is still online news for those who want to gain more inside into the latest Sarawak scenario by linking to the recent Zaid Ibrahim’s Kita launch. Of course there is also that Borneo-Champion (sic) but rhetorical Ketingan’s United Borneo Front. Follow closely what were said, who were at where and the picture gets a little clearer. Basically, try to put the artificially created pieces together as nothing in politics is coincidental.

So, who will be the winner with this latest SNAP flip-flopping?

In the name of Sarawak, in the name of the rakyat, and in the name of so many others, these recycled politicians turned anew, rebranded etc by joining forces with the PR, when they were out in the cold. Kua reminded us of such “born-again” people before. But who will it really benefit, in the context of Sarawak?

It can now be said that Taib had suddenly been thrown a new lifeline, thanks to the new SNAP. Was it all planned then, that the Registrar of Societies (ROS) would not appeal against the Court of Appeals decision in favour of SNAP, after the ROS deregistration? We all know that the ROS, like all other government institutions, are mere extensions of the BN. The ROS would have only withheld an appeal if told to do so.

So was it all foreseen that keeping SNAP from being deregistered would be favourable to the Sarawak BN under Taib Mahmud? It seems to be the case now.

Look at the scenario

SNAP officially joined the Pakatan Rakyat coalition just before the Sibu by-election on April 16, 2010. As recently as January 7 this year, SNAP secretary-general Stanley Jugol confirmed the party’s joint challenge against Taib Mahmud’s BN rule of 30 years now, saying “it is going to remain as an inclusive party working under Pakatan Rakyat.”

Then came the January 20 “quit PR” turn-around. The reason – it was all about PKR. It was only PKR, and no one else – certainly not the recycled SNAP personnel who had all frogged from one party to another, only to return to the same frog pond in the end.

So what has happened to such past talk when joining the PR, like when Jugol and the president, Edwin Dundang were described as saying “both have confirmed that after eight difficult years, and their association with Pakatan Rakyat, they have come to believe in their (PR) struggle for the good of the people and the eradication of corruption plaguing the nation.” There are more such statements – just do an internet search.

On 20 Jan, the talk became “we have realised that their leaders are making use of us. Their agenda is they want to get to Putrajaya at all cost, while SNAP’s agenda is to get a fair deal for Sarawak.” said Liman, SNAP’s director of communications, as he targeted PKR as the reason for pulling out of the PR.

“Instead they concentrated more in Peninsular Malaysia. They are not serious about Sarawak,” as Liman continued to stir up prejudice against PKR along BN lines, in trying to alienate PKR as a Semenanjung-based party. A new blah blah blah appeared but the attack on PKR was consistent.

The eventual message can be summed up by Liman, “SNAP will stand alone as it cannot rely on PKR for support.”

But no, SNAP is too inconsistent, too hurried to sell out to the highest bidder, and too unstable for the recycled team to stir any trouble within PR.

So what is happening?

My worry, seriously, is how this latest episode will diminish the chances of removing the BN state government. Trying to make sense from what the same key characters’ past reveals, what these same people had said, before and after certain events – in this case, when SNAP’s self-destruction by few self-interested “leaders”, through PBDS, then joined and left PR – is the only way I can try to glue the shattered picture together, into a more coherent and comprehensible situation.

I have only what the various characters of SNAP (old, the rebranded new and the recycled) had said and done to go by. Taking them all as far back as possible, SNAP people can be traced back all the way to the BN. It is rather pathetic that Malaysian politics, including Sarawak politics, can only trace most of the present characters back to the BN. So I can rely on history, at least, to remind me of the same characters.

I refer to history because I refuse to kowtow to what Edward Gibbon (1737 – 1794) described, that “history is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies and misfortunes of mankind”, or what George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950) said: “Hegel was right when he said that we learn from history that man can never learn anything from history”. I refer to the words of George Santayana (1863 – 1952), in The Life of Reason, Volume 1, 1905: “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Must Sarawak and Sarawakians be condemned to what Voltaire (1694 – 1778) hinted at, more than three centuries ago, when he said “indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes”?

SNAP’s ‘reasoning’, pointing at PKR as Semenanjung-centric, is a gross injustice and insult to those Sarawak PKR leaders, all of whom SNAP people know well, who have nothing but Sarawak as their prime focus in their socio-political work. These PKR leaders at State, Divisional and Branch levels, do not even have to harp on the “Borneo” rhetoric to be “inclusive” but just concentrate on plain Sarawak. Their championing of NCR lands, is back up by concrete actions, and with solutions and nothing, not even their terrible internal conflicts, can distract them from this focus. When they talk about the rakyat, they are not merely using the name. Their words and actions match, period.

Sarawakians decide

Many theories can be postulated here about who is behind SNAP’s turn-around, but I am going to trust readers, especially Sarawakian voters, to be able to just pause, step back and reflect. Then decide, and register that decision through the ballot boxes, soon.

Here are some of the questions we ought to ask, to help us. Please add to this list yourselves, but ask the key questions with Sarawakians’ future in mind:

Who has long over-stayed ruling and thus plundering Sarawak? I am not talking about the individual here as the individual cannot be there without the whole group of them in the BN.
Thus, who is the common target to remove as the government of Sarawak and Malaysia?
Will this latest happening in Sarawak’s political landscape benefit the BN more than others?
Are the characters who are now rebranding themselves as people ‘for Sarawak and Sarawakians’ simply using Sarawak and Sarawakians for their own respective reasons?
Last but not least, are we Sarawakian voters still really so easily manipulated that we cannot see the evil dressed up in an oversized coat?