Sarawak Workers’ Party legality questioned

(Borneo Post) – Is Sarawak Workers’ Party (SWP) really a legal entity? The answer lies with the Registrar of Societies (ROS).

It also depends on the outcome of its investigation into the complaints made by several supreme council members of Sabah People’s Front (SPF) party.

SPF deputy president Osman Enting yesterday said that they had lodged official complaint to ROS headquarters in Putrajaya pertaining to the unlawful change of their party’s name to Sarawak Workers’ Party.

He claimed their main complaint was that the minutes of the purported extraordinary general meeting (EGM) during which the change of party’s name was supposed to have been agreed and endorsed by the SPF had been falsified.

There was never an EGM.

“The EGM was said to have been held at The Palace Hotel in Kota Kinabalu but when we checked with the management they confirmed that no such meeting was held there.

“This is just one of the evidences that we have gathered to show that the EGM was only on paper and the related documents were all forged,” he said.

Speaking by telephone from Kota Kinabalu yesterday, Osman said that he and the rest of the SPF supreme council members were all caught by surprise when informed that the name of Sabah People’s Front had been changed to Sarawak Workers’ Party.

“We were really shocked when told that SPF was no longer in existence and its registration had been taken over by SWP.

We were wondering how that was possible.

Later on, we discovered that it was the work of our president and secretary general.

“Immediately, we convened a supreme council meeting during which we decided to relieve them (president and sec-gen) from their respective posts with immediate effect.

A police report was also lodged against them for falsifying the minutes of a meeting that never took place at all,” he said.

Osman added that they also lodged a complaint on the matter to the ROS headquarters and he was confident that the relevant authorities were investigating into the case.

He pointed out that as far as the law was concerned the change of their party’s name to SWP was unlawful because in the first place it had never been endorsed by at least two thirds of the supreme council members.

He said based on that the change of name and registration certificate issued by the ROS to SWP if any, on the basis that everything was in order should also be considered null and void in law since the process was not done properly.

However, he said that SPF might consider withdrawing all its complaints if the party could use SWP banner to contest in Sabah in the 13th general election.

“In fact, when we formed the party our objective was to have a platform to fight against Sabah Umno in the coming election.

“With more than 50,000 registered members from 42 branches throughout the state (Sabah) we feel that SPF is in the best position to put up a tough fight against Umno in Sabah this time around,” he said.

As such, it was their hope that SWP leaders would find the best ways to resolve the issue.

“All we want now is a party for us to contest in the coming general election.

For that, we are seeking the cooperation from SWP leaders to see how things can be resolved.

But, until now none of them have approached us,” he said.

SWP is led by Larry Sng who claimed that all the processes in the change of party’s name were proper.