Snap grasping at straws to regain momentum
By Luke Rintod, Free Malaysia Today
KOTA KINABALU: The ‘who’s who’ and ‘who’s backing whom’ mind game is continuing a week before Sarawakians go to the polls.
Sarawak outcast Snap is struggling to re-establish their credentials as an independent non-Barisan Nasional-supporting party in the election after PKR, Movement for Change Sarawak (MoCS) and and the Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement (MCLM) severed ties with them.
The party has snapped up Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian’s words that Snap is “struggling due to limited resources or lack of voter support” as a godsend as an admission that they are not engaged
in dubious practices as claimed.
The party is desperate to be taken seriously after being dealt a body blow by MCLM two weeks ago when the independent grouping revealed that Snap candidates and some of their ‘privileged’ leaders had suddenly come into significant funds that were being made available by operatives from Kuala Lumpur acting under the directions of BN.
MCLM president Haris Ibrahim explained then that they were severing all ties or relationship with Snap as the objective of the alliance was to end the plight of marginalised Sarawakians by ending Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s 30-year reign, and to establish a pro-rakyat federal government.
A Snap supporter today said that Bian’s words showed that there was no truth in the accusations that Snap is a BN tool and funded by the ruling coalition in the election.
A Snap campaigner who is struggling to get the party’s message across today accused PKR, DAP and MoCS for making the allegations against the state-based Dayak party to deny them the right to be a partner within Pakatan Rakyat.
The same Sabah tactic
He accused PKR and DAP campaigners of emphasising the accusation against Snap especially in areas Snap is contesting and said it was exactly the same tactic PKR and DAP did to Sabah-based party SAPP during the Batu Sapi by-election in November last year in Sabah.
SAPP, he said, was then accused of being untrustworthy and being in cahoots with BN and of harbouring ambitions of rejoining the BN if it won.
“PKR and DAP are now using the same tactics … accusing Snap too would rejoin BN when it wins some seats,” said the Snap campaigner who only wanted to be known as Stanley.
“But now even Baru Bian knows that our candidates are short of fund…God is great. He puts words in Baru’s mouth to vindicate us, for if we are funded by BN as accused, surely our campaign machineries are just as well-oiled like BN’s,” he argued.
“There is no truth whatsoever from the very beginning of Snap receiving aid from BN and being a tool for BN. PKR and MoCS created that accusation just to satisfy their own greed to push away Snap and pave the way for them to put up their own candidates,” he told FMT.
Baru had called on Snap to withdraw its candidates in constituencies where its campaign are ‘not making any headway’ because of lack of fund.
