KUCHING (Aug 26, 2012): Opposition Sarawak National Party (SNAP) is studying the possibility of applying to rejoin the Barisan Nasional (BN), its president Stanley Jugol said today.
"This is one of the options which we have discussed in our central executive committee (CEC) meeting last month," he said when contacted.
The other options are to maintain its status quo as an independent opposition party or apply to join Pakatan Rakyat (PR).
"There is nothing definite yet. We are still studying the options," Jugol said, adding that mostly likely SNAP would apply to rejoin the BN instead of being in the opposition or joining PR.
It is learnt that Jugol had at SNAP's CEC meeting raised the possibility of the party applying to rejoin the BN.
According to a CEC member, who declined to be named, Jugol reasoned that SNAP's membership with the BN had ceased to exist when it was deregistered by the Registrar of Societies (ROS) in 2002 after a prolonged leadership rift.
The tussle then was between a group led by the then president Datuk Amar James Wong and secretary-general Datuk Justine Jinggut, and another led by the then deputy president Datuk Seri Peter Tinggom and vice-president Tan Sri William Mawan Ikom.
"Jugol told the CEC meeting that the party was not kicked out and had not left the BN, but its membership was terminated after the deregistration," he said.
"Technically, SNAP is still a member of the BN," Jugol had reasoned.
However, the CEC member said some senior members have threatened to leave the party should SNAP be re-admitted into the BN.
"They argued that they were not likely to be allocated a seat to contest in the next general election if they joined BN.
"They also expressed doubts whether SNAP would be given an active role in BN," he added.
After SNAP was deregistered, its position and role in the BN was taken over by the Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) led by Mawan, the minister of social development.
SPDP was registered soon after SNAP was declared illegal by the ROS.
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