Sarawak National Party (Snap) secretary-general Stanley Jugol has given a Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) vice president Jacob Sagan two weeks to retract his recently published statement that "Snap is no longer alive so it is not a member of the ruling Barisan Nasional" or face legal action for contempt of court.

Jacob is also the member of parliament for Baram and chairperson of the Miri Port Authority (MPA).

Stanley told malaysiakini today that he had written to Jacob at the end of last month giving him two weeks to reply and apologise, failing which he would be cited for contempt of court as the matter of Snap's de-registration is now before the court.

The Registrar of Societies (ROS) last November issued a show-cause letter as to why Snap should not be deregistered from alleged constitutional irregularities following a serious internal fued between two factions in the party.

Deadline

The party has since taken the matter to court which is going to hear its application for a judicial review of the ROS' decision at year-end. Meantime, the ROS' decision has been stayed pending the final disposal of the court case.

"I've not heard from Jacob since my letter. If by Tuesday (Aug 12), I still do not hear from him I shall give instructions to my lawyer to proceed contempt of court proceedings," Stanley said.

Snap is now led by a former Shell senior management executive Edwin Dundang, who is also a former Miri Port Authority chairperson. He succeeded James Wong Kim Min, who stepped down from the party as president during the recent triennial general assembly.

The new party leadership's hopes of returning to the BN fold have been significantly bolstered by a recent meeting with Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Malaysiakini understands that Mahathir's advice to the new Snap leadership is to try and work out some kind of a deal with SPDP leaders, led by William Mawan, a former Snap vice president and a state cabinet minister.

Difficult days ahead

Observers say that if Jacob's statement is any indication, any deal between the two parties will be difficult to achieve, and Snap, if its membership status within the BN is not clarified soon by the BN top leadership, could find itself in a another dilemma after Mahathir's advice.

Stanley said he hoped a decision could be made soon as members of the party are becomingly increasingly agitated and unhappy at the long delay in a formal declaration of the party's status within BN.

One concern on the part of some leaders is that members could leave if they see no prospects of the party being brought back into the BN fold or they could force the party leaders to go into the opposition and fight for their rights to those seats now taken over by SPDP from the outside.

All Snap's elected representatives are now with SPDP, leaving it on paper with only one senator (William Lau of Sibu). Recently, its wali kota for Kapit in central Sarawak had his appointment ended and a Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) member Philimon Nuing who is aligned to the Dr James Masing faction was appointed in his place.