Media report is a lie, says Snap
(FMT) – Snap has criticised an Umno-owned newspaper for spinning a story about its strained relationship with PKR.
KUCHING: Sarawak Nasional Party (Snap) has refuted an Umno-owned media’s spin on its ties with peninsular-based PKR.
Denying a news report yesterday, Snap Youth chief Darrell Enterie said: “NST is an Umno paper… it’s not true.
“We just met with (deputy president) Azmin (Ali) and Dr Mansor Othman (Penang deputy chief minister).
“We are still negotiating the seats.”
Enterie said Snap had discussed the issue of more seats with Azmin and the latter had been agreeable to a review.
“We informed Azmin of Snap’s agenda. We are a local Dayak party and want to be dominant here (Sarawak).
“Azmin agreed with the idea and asked us to give him two days to look into our request. He said he had to confer with the political bureau in KL,” said Enterie.
Also present at the meeting were Sarawak PKR leaders Nickolas Bawin and Jimmy Donald.
Sarawak PKR chairman Baru Bian was conspicuously missing.
Enterie was responding to a NST report quoting Snap president Edwin Dundang as allegedly saying that his party would not cooperate with PKR.
Political dominance
Dundang had reportedly claimed that PKR was being “greedy” and had also wanted to take away seats allocated to DAP and PAS.
“Our doors are closed. We have had enough. There is no need for any more discussions. We are not interested.
“Either PKR allocates us all 40 seats we are asking or forget everything,” Dundang reportedly said.
This is the second time Dundang has been quoted as saying he will yank Snap out of the Sarawak Pakatan Rakyat coalition.
The first time was in an immediate reaction to Azmin’s announcement earlier this month that Pakatan would allocate only three seats to Snap.
Dundang lashed out at Azmin, saying it was an “insult” to Snap.
Following Dundang’s outburst, Snap secretary-general Stanley Jugol countered with a statement that Snap was still negotiating with Pakatan and would “sink and swim” with it.
PKR is reportedly eyeing 52 seats, the majority of which are in Dayak-dominant areas targeted by Snap.
The tussle between PKR and Snap is not only about political dominance but also leadership.
Power-broker
Snap, which hosted Sarawak’s first chief minister in Stephen Kalong Ningkan, an Iban, sees itself as returning to its former glory and political dominance.
