Wrong accusation, broken promises
by Peter Sibon, reporters@theborneopost.com. Posted on March 14, 2012, Wednesday
OUR STORY: Entri speaking to The Borneo Post in the presence of Rosey (left) and Paulus (right).
Former Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) secretary general and vice-president Datuk Sylvester Entri Muran refuted the party’s deputy president Datuk Peter Nyarok’s claim that he was behind Philip Ngo’s last minute challenge for the deputy president’s post in the party’s TGM in 2009.
“I, as the secretary general then could not prevent the challenge by Philip Ngo because I was too small to make the decision to stop or prevent him from contesting the post. The only person who could have prevented the contest was Mawan himself,” he told The Borneo Post in an exclusive interview here yesterday.
Breaking his silence on what went wrong within the party before he and four other leaders were sacked Entri disclosed that prior to the party’s TGM in 2009, he was called by party president Tan Sri William Mawan to “position myself within the party” as there were rumours that deputy president Datuk Peter Nyarok would give way to Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing.
He discovered later that Mawan had also given the same instruction to former party senior vice-president Datuk Peter Nansian to toe the line.
Entri revealed that as there was a strong possibility that four of them (including Tiong and Nyarok) would be fighting for the second top post, they decided to come to a consensus which was later known as the “status quo president’s lineup” which was later endorsed by the supreme council and signed by the president himself.
“That ‘SPDP Declaration’ should be binding and should have been honoured by the president himself. If that had been done, the party would never have split,” Entri said.
Entri revealed that Mawan had also confided in him that he (Mawan) would not want Tiong to come close which, Mawan described as, “one heartbeat next to the president”.
Entri, who is also the Assistant Minister of Agriculture (Framer’s Organisation) and Assistant Minister of Public Utilities (Water Supplies) pointed out that he was accused of scheming against the party leadership and the ‘status quo’ list by arranging Philip’s bid for the deputy president’s post.
He added that he and the four other leaders had never conspired against the party and the leadership.
When asked if there was any possibility for his group to reconcile with the party, Entri quipped: “I do not want to sound arrogant, but the door was closed to us rather that we leave the party”.
He pointed out that before the disciplinary committee was set late last year, the party should have set up a reconciliatory committee instead to find ways to patch up the differences among the party leaders.
“So how could I defend myself when the disciplinary committee issued me with the show cause letter?” he asked.
Entri stressed that if the party had taken the advice of the BN top leadership to have a cooling period and not made the rash decision of issuing them the show cause letter and subsequently sacking them, things could have turn out differently.
“Now if only Mawan could say, “I am the leader and I will do things my way” then perhaps there is a possibility that our group could reconcile with the party as advised by the top BN leaders,” Entri pointed out.
Besides Entri and Nansian, the other party leaders sacked by SPDP are former vice-presidents Datuk Dr Tiki Lafe, Rosey Yunus and former information chief Paulus Palu Gumbang.
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