updated The 41-year-old Sarawak National Party (Snap) one of the state's oldest political parties has been deregistered following its failure to resolve its leadership crisis.

Registrar of Societies Ismail Dolah Harun, who made the announcement today, said that Snap leaders have failed to respond satisfactorily to the show-cause letter issued by the ROS.

He added that the party's office-bearers had not shown any sign of resolving their differences within the party.

Snap was embroiled in a leadership crisis when its president, James Wong Kim Min (photo, left), expelled Bintulu member of parliament Tiong King Sing from the party in April on grounds of party indiscipline.

Following Tiong's expulsion, the party's leadership was split into two factions, with one group headed by Wong and the other by his ambitious vice-president, William Mawan.

Emergency meeting

The ruling Sarawak BN supreme council will hold an emergency meeting tomorrow to discuss the de-registration of one of its coalition members and how to deal with the situation involving the defunct party's 10 elected representatives.

Among Snap's elected representatives are one state minister (William Mawan), two assistant state ministers (Dr Judson Sakai Tagal and Peter Nyarok) and one deputy federal minister (Dr Tiki Lafei). It also has four political secretaries to Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud.

Malaysiakini understand that tomorrow's meeting the first state BN supreme council held since Aug 30 last year will take place at Parti Pesaka Bumiputra Sarawak (PBB) headquarters and will be chaired by its chairman, Abdul Taib.

With the de-registration of Snap, the Sarawak BN is left with three component members PBB, the Chinese-based Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP) and the Dayak-based Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS).

Meanwhile, a greatly disappointed Wong, president of the now defunct party, said in an immediate reaction to the news of the party's deregistration that he would be meeting his own faction leaders at the party headquarters this evening to decide on their next course of action.

He added that he was looking at two options either to appeal directly to the home minister, who is the final authority on any decision taken by the ROS, or to take the matter to court.

Meanwhile, William Mawan (photo, right), leader of the other faction that comprises five of the six state assemblypersons and four members of parliament, said he and his group were not surprised by the ROS' decision.

He added that if Wong should go ahead with the appeal, his group would also do likewise "because we also want to be a party to any decision that may eventually be taken by higher-up authorities" on the issue.

Independent ticket

Snap was formed by a group of Dayak leaders, including Stephen Kalong Ningkan (who was later to become Sarawak's first post-Malaysia chief minister) in 1963.

Wong, first elected as a councillor in Limbang on an independent ticket, later joined the party and became Sarawak's first deputy chief minister in the Ningkan cabinet.

The party was booted out of the then Sarawak Alliance at the height of Sarawak's first political crisis in 1966 when Ningkan was sacked as chief minister.

He was later reinstated for a short two weeks as head of a minority government after he won a constitutional court case. But he was again out of office after the federal government invoked emergency regulations in overcoming the crisis in Sarawak.

After a spell in the opposition, Snap joined BN in mid-1970s but was plunged into an internal party crisis itself in the early 1980s when Ningkan's successor as party president, Dunstan Endawie Enchana, stepped down to become the Malaysian high commissioner to New Zealand.

At the time, a group of young and ambitious Dayak leaders, led by Leo Moggie Irok (photo, right), now Minister of Energy, Telecommunications and Multimedia, challenged Wong and his supporters but failed at the party's 1981 triennial delegates conference.

This led soon after to a breakaway group, led by Leo Moggie and Daniel Tajem Miri, a lawyer by training and the then deputy chief minister, forming their own party Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS).

This led to the formation of a Barisan-Plus government in Sarawak as a means of retaining the erstwhile Snap's Dayak leaders.

A similar political scenario is emerging today, except that the BN is having to deal with a group of elected representatives without any party, yet.

When in 1987, Leo Moggie's PBDS sided with former head of state and chief minister Abdul Rahman Yakub's Maju Group to challenge Abdul Taib's leadership in Sarawak, Wong's Snap stayed with Abdul Taib and helped the BN won a small majority in a snap state election.

Trouble brewing

Signs of new trouble brewing within Snap's leadership surfaced early this year when Wong's quiet maneuvering to marginalise certain elected representatives seen less favourably by his supporters.

This was soon after he gave up his Limbang state seat to his son 48-year-old Richard and tried unsuccessfully to get him appointed to the state cabinet.

Instead, Abdul Taib chose Mawan to fill the full ministerial post after Wong stepped down, in addition to the appointment of former deputy speaker of state assembly Dr Judson Tagal and Peter Nyarok as assistant ministers.

Things came out into the open when Wong sacked the Bintulu MP Tiong which led to a walk-out by the Mawan group from the party's central executive committee meeting.

A series of events followed, including the appointment of Mawan as the party's new 'president' by his own faction at an extraordinary general meeting in Kuching.

Wong considered that as a party coup and eventually forced the ROS to step in, leading to today's deregistration.

Meanwhile, central executive member of the defunct party, Senator William Lau, a successful Sibu lawyer and corporate leader, said if Mawan went ahead with his appeal to the Home Ministry, it would only complicate matter. He said that would merely serve to confirm to Kuala Lumpur that there was no way the two factions would work together to bring the party back.

He added that he had been disappointed in recent months with Wong's attitude in not compromising a little to resolve the party's crisis.

"It is not enough merely to say 'I will resign.' You have to show you are sincere," he added.

Mawan told reporters today that his faction's plans to register a new party would proceed regardless, and that he would attend tomorrow's meeting of the state BN supreme council. It is not immediately known whether Wong will be present too.