Snap snaps back at PKR
Stanley Jugol says the opposition should stop bickering and concentrate on kicking BN out.
(Free Malaysia Today) – Snap has called for an end to bickering among opposition parties and urged them to work instead towards ousting the Barisan Nasional government of Sarawak.
The call came in a press statement that was, in the main, a sneering response to recent statements by PKR leaders worried about the splitting of votes for the opposition.
“Snap does not wish to prolong the bickering among opposition parties but wish to focus against the main adversary, Barisan Nasional,” said the statement, released today and signed by Snap secretary-general Stanley Jugol.
“However, Snap feels compelled to reply to the various unfair allegations made by Baru Bian, head of PKR Sarawak, and Anwar Ibrahim, the Ketua Umum of PKR.”
Jugol said Bian was being “impertinent” in his call for the withdrawal of Snap candidates from the April 16 state election and described Anwar’s anxiety over the possibility of split opposition votes as a “compliment” to a party “to which he offered only three seats to contest”.
Local sensitivities
Bian, noting the paucity of Snap banners, posters and other campaign materials, recently urged the party’s candidates to withdraw from the election and support PKR.
“Just because Snap does not conduct its election campaign in the manner that other parties do, it does not mean that Snap is not gaining support among the voters where it is contesting,” Jugol said.
“Snap also does not believe in ostentatious spending on election peripherals such as flags, buntings and billboards in the areas we contest, which are mostly economically deprived.
“Snap also refrains from bringing in outsiders, some from the peninsula, who do not understand local sensitivities by uttering brash words in ceramahs and vote canvassing to the chagrin of the peaceful dwellers of rural Sarawak.
“Since the areas we are contesting are spread out in the hinterland with poor communications, we have dispensed with centralised ceramahs and have focused on personal visits by our candidates to the thousands of longhouses, which are miles apart.
“That was why we saw it fit to begin our election campaign with an early announcement of our candidates. Devoid of helicopters and mainstream television, we have managed to touch the hearts of the thousands marginalised by mainstream politicians.”
He predicted that the voting would show that Sarawak’s rural natives had “their own perception of how politics should be practiced”.
He also said it was “surprising” that Anwar was now worried that Snap would split the opposition votes.
