Snap: Seat talks with PKR on the brink

Negotiations for an opposition pact for the upcoming Sarawak elections look to be heading for a total breakdown with the Sarawak National Party (Snap) voicing its frustration with PKR's 'infantile offer' of four seats.

It wants 27 seats at the very minimum.

Snap is very much in favour of an opposition pact for the April 16 elections, its director of operations Paul Kadang (left) said today.


However the possibility of such a pact appears to be diminishing by the day, he said in a lengthy statement.

He put the blame squarely on PKR for the failure to reach agreement on the allocation of seats, with several involving overlapping claims.

"The negotiations on the seat allocations commenced in a haphazard manner and much later than ideally possible," he said.

"Snap refuses to be marginalised and to underscore its seriousness and capacity to compete, declared publicly its 16 candidates for 16 named constituencies.

"A startled PKR came back to 'offer' four seats, instead of three. Snap responded to this infantile insult by announcing 11 more candidates for 11 more constituencies."

'Incompetency' in leadership 

He said PKR's incompetency in leadership and management of the negotiations was obvious.

"There was no negotiation agenda and things were done by the seat of their pants and at their convenience.

"Snap expected the first session would have been attended by decision-makers of all parties."

He also said there is no point in negotiating if the negotiators have no power or mandate to make decisions.

"At all times, PKR insisted that the final decision would be made by the national leadership after a negotiating position had been reached by the parties. To any seasoned negotiator, such a statement is already a deal-breaker," he noted.

Kadang said Snap expected that the first order of the day was to get a consensus of the proportionate spread of the number of seats to be contested by each party in accordance to macro-demographic factors which all four parties - PKR, Snap, DAP and PAS - hold themselves to champion.

He added it was clear that DAP would run in Chinese-majority areas, PAS in a few Muslim-majority areas and PKR in Malay-Melanau areas, where they had concentrated their efforts in the past decade for better or for worse.

He said Snap, being a multi-racial party but traditionally a Dayak-based one, would contest in the native-majority areas.

"It was only in the mixed areas that overlapping claims will have to be resolved through negotiations," he said.

"But PKR having suddenly realised that native issues could be the determining issues in the coming elections, and still hung over from the ecstasy of the 2008 electoral tsunami in the peninsula, thought that by placing their candidates in these native constituencies, (it) can be the beneficiary of a Sarawak tsunami."

He said that, if in fact PKR had made a positive impact in native constituencies and indeed enjoyed native support by putting in hard work in building up an articulation of native dissatisfaction, the results would have been evident.

"But instead, PKR has never won nor come close to winning a native-majority seat in three federal elections and two state elections in the 12 years of their existence in Sarawak. In fact, a number of their candidates lost their deposits. So much for PKR's desire to contest in 53 seats."

Winnability of candidates 

Kadang said next thing the negotiating parties should consider is the `winnability' of candidates as a basis for allocation of overlapping seats.

He said that, as has always maintained, Snap would be happy to be a part of an electoral pact if it is allowed to contest in the 27 constituencies.

"However, should there be a free for all, Snap has the capacity and candidates to contest up to 40 seats. That is an option that it will take only if there is no more rules of engagement among the opposition parties.

"Snap respects the opinions of others as their right to voice opinions in a democracy. By the same token, Snap reserves its right to its own political action without having to be accused of treachery and all the other tales that make interesting gossip at teh tarik stalls.

"Snap urges that, before certain presumptions are made, basic empirical research should be done that goes beyond mere rhetoric and wishful thinking.

"Like everybody else in this state, we wish to unseat the (Abdul) Taib (Mahmud) (left) regime, but we will do it in a manner that safeguards Sarawakian and Dayak control over their own affairs and destiny, and avoid jumping out of the pot into the fire.

"Our words are based on actual experience but we certainly welcome learned comments and guidance from armchair politicians made in good faith," he added. (Stephen Tiong)