Snap: Working together easier than merging

The views of Sarawak National Party (Snap) members have to be sought before any move is made to merge the party with the DAP, its secretary-general Stanley Jugol explained today.

“We have to get their views as merger means dissolution of the party,” Jugol (left) said.


“Do they really want the party to be dissolved?” he said when asked to comment on DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang's statement yesterday.

Lim had said the proposed merger between the DAP and Snap was still at a preliminary stage, that it would be in the interests of the present opposition pact and would be of no threat to any party in the grouping.

“The Sarawak DAP leadership is still exploring the idea of a merger. It (the discussion) will be discontinued if the Snap leadership is against it (the merger),” Lim told a press conference in Sibu yesterday, after a DAP post-mortem on the April 16 state election.

According to Lim, DAP's winning of 12 seats in the election not because of the Chinese support alone.

He explained that the party would have had difficulty winning constituencies such as Batu Kawah, Meradong, Kidurong, Kota Sentosa, Repok, Piasau and Dudong without the support of the bumiputera voters.

 Jugol said it would be difficult for Snap to merge with the DAP because of historical reasons and the feelings of SNAP members.

“If you want to merge, both Snap and DAP have to be dissolved so we can form a new party,” he said, and asked whether the DAP members would like to see their party dissolved.

Jugol said he did not want to speculate whether Snap or DAP members wanted their parties to be dissolved as both have long histories.

'CEC has not held a meeting to discuss the merger'

Jugol said Snap's central executive committee (CEC) had not held a meeting to discuss the merger since Lim mooted the idea.

He said the CEC members would have to air their views before bringing up the matter to the party members.

Jugol said he did not think that a CEC meeting would have to be called just to discuss the merger proposal.

He said if the merger proposal did not materialise, Snap would be willing to work together with the DAP.

“Working together is easier done than merging,” he said.

Jugol said both Snap and DAP could cooperate in many ways, and that there was nothing to stop them from working together as both were in the opposition.

In the recent state election, the two parties did not clash with each other in the seats they contested.

However, Snap and PKR, both members of Pakatan Rakyat, clashed in 25 seats, which were also contested by the Barisan Nasional and Independents.

PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim had stated that any move for a DAP-Snap merger would have to be discussed by the Pakatan Rakyat council.

“We want to know the reasons for the merger as various allegations have been made against Snap during the campaigning period for the state election,” Anwar had said.

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