SWP grows in support base and strength

SPDP Pakan Wanita chief owns up

Posted on December 10, 2012, Monday

ON OUR OWN ACCORD: Patimah and husband admit that they were not pinched to jump ship.

SARIKEI: SPDP Pakan Division Wanita chief Patimah Bllaka yesterday confessed that the press statement she issued a day earlier over her association with Sarawak Workers Party (SWP) was misleading.

She made the confession in front of SWP vice-president Wong Judat at her longhouse in Pakan near here yesterday.

In her confession, she admitted that she and her husband Langgut Gangan had knowingly associated themselves with SWP although they were still members of SPDP.

This ran contrary to her press statement published in thesundaypost where she claimed that they had never made any application to join SWP and were puzzled by the SWP membership cards issued to them.

Yesterday, she admitted that they had  applied for the Larry Sng Education  Fund for  their son   to pursue a Bachelor of Architect Course at Universiti Putera Malaysia on their own accord.

“We clearly understood that one of the criteria to be eligible to apply for the fund, which is clearly stated in the application forms, is that the applicant’s parents must be members of SWP and either one or both must be voters in  Julau, Kanowit, Lubok Antu, Selangau, Sri Aman  or  Hulu Rajang parliamentary constituencies,” she added.

She also admitted that her husband and she had personally collected the SWP membership cards from the party’s office here.

While expressing regret for coming up with a statement which offended SWP, she hoped that her confession had cleared the air.

‘Pinching members not SWP culture’

by Lim How Pim, reporters@theborneopost.com. Posted on December 10, 2012, Monday

Josephine Randan Mawat

KUCHING: Sarawak Workers Party (SWP) has dismissed recent accusations that they were ‘pinching members from SPDP’.

Its senior vice-president Josephine Randan Mawat said although SWP’s door was wide open for any individual who wanted to join the party, it would not stoop to collect unwilling souls.

“It is true that we are recruiting more members, especially in the six parliamentary constituencies we want to contest in, but pinching is not a suitable word.

“We are opening the door to anyone who is willing to serve SWP, and membership cards will be issued only based on membership applications received,” she said.

She made these remarks in response to a news report published yesterday which quoted Wanita SPDP Pakan chief Patimah Bllaka as saying that she, her husband and son were each issued with a membership card by SWP.

However, Patimah owned up yesterday when she confessed in front of SWP vice president Wong Judat at her longhouse in Pakan that her family had knowingly associated themselves with SWP although they were still members of SPDP.

Josephine told reporters at SWP headquarters here they would not issue membership card without an application in black and white.

“We have to make it very clear that applicants have to fill out our membership form before being issued a membership card.”

She, however, admitted that the party did not screen the background of its membership applicants, adding: “We do not ask them whether they are members of any other political party.”

“It is not our duty to ask, they (applicants) should know it themselves. So we do not check, and I believe other political parties do the same.”

Josephine revealed that SWP had recruited some 20,000 members from throughout the state to date.

“The new members are mostly from the six parliamentary seats.”

The six parliamentary constituencies which SWP are interested to contest in during the impending general election are Sri Aman, Lubok Antu, Julau, Kanowit, Selangau and Hulu Rajang.