KUCHING: Despite the state Pakatan Rakyat (PR) presenting a more united front with the entry of Sarawak National Party (SNAP), Barisan Nasional leaders said the Opposition lacked a clear political stand.
SUPP president Tan Sri Dr George Chan said the Opposition front was too flexible in its ideology by working with different parties with different goals.
“Since the DAP can work with PAS, it shows they are willing to work with any party, despite their opposing ideologies,” Dr Chan told The Star yesterday.
“The Opposition front is a mix of strange bedfellows. I cannot see clearly what is their ideology. I think that is not going to work. Either you believe in certain things or you do not. You cannot have so many different ideologies working together.”
Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) president Datuk Seri Dr James Jemut Masing said SNAP itself did not know where it stood. Masing claimed SNAP had some members who preferred the party to be aligned to Barisan.
“It is not a united party. It is a party that does not know what it really wants. There are factions within it that believe in different things. Any party that is not united will end up confusing voters.”
Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu Sarawak (PBB) supreme council member Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah agreed.
Karim said SNAP’s move indicated that the Opposition would continue to bring up matters like land rights.
“The state Barisan will have to propagate its policies and stand on issues and development ideas,” he said.
Asked what effect SNAP’s entry into Sarawak PR would have on rural politics, Karim said the party was “just a mosquito party”.
“They have joined PR to save themselves from oblivion,” Karim said. “And I am sure they will be pushed around.”
Sarawak PR component party PKR president Baru Bian, however, begged to differ.
He said SNAP was a political party with its own ideologies, and was free to choose which side it wanted to be on.
“The state Barisan can say anything they like,” he said. “My stand is that SNAP has its members, and they have their beliefs. They choose to stand on PR’s side and that is their right.”
He said SNAP joined the state PR because the party “opposed BN’s policies.”
“It is as simple as that.”
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