The Sarawak National Party (Snap), increasingly uncertain about its own membership status within the multi-party ruling coalition, may have to resign itself to playing a role in the opposition.

This is what it will come to if and when the highest decision-making body of the nation's ruling coalition - Barisan Nasional - should fail to arrive at any decision or even reject the party's request for an official recognition of its BN membership.

In anticipation of this, Snap central executive committee (CEC) met yesterday afternoon and decided after listening to feedbacks on the ground that the party should reactive all its 62 divisional branches and prepare for the parliamentary election which is expected anytime between now and December next year.

The party is particularly interested in taking back at least four parliamentary seats - Mas Gading, Saratok, Bintulu and Baram - which it 'lost' to the state's newest political party, Sarawak Democratic Progressive Party (SPDP), when the four incumbents joined the latter.

SPDP is led by a former Snap vice president William Mawan.

Snap was de-registered by the Registrar of Societies in November last year after an internal leadership feud, and the remaining leaders, including former president James Wong and former secretary-general and now deputy president Justine Jinggut quickly went to court to appeal against the ROS' decision.

Disappointed

Hearing of the application for a judicial review of the ROS' decision has been postponed at least twice, and no new date has been fixed. However, Snap has obtained a reprieve in that the Court of Appeals has granted it a stay order against the ROS' decision meaning it can carry on as usual.

Snap's new leaders, including Wong's successor as president Edwin Dundang, have expressed great disappointment that their request to be reinstated as BN member was not decided upon at the recent BN supreme council meeting in Kuala Lumpur.

"We are resigned to the possibility that the BN supreme council will not make a decision on our BN membership issue, inspite of promises by some top BN leadership," one party leader who asked not to be identified told malaysiakini.

Meantime, Snap secretary-general Stanley Jugol wrote to the BN secretary-general Mohamad Rahmat on September 15 to demand a reply within seven days for him to inform the party on its membership status in the BN.

Observers regard this as a decision already taken by Snap that it is no longer prepared to wait any longer for its membership status to be decided by the BN as it would now rather prepare for elections, even if it means going back into the opposition.

Snap was part of the ruling Sarawak Alliance in the early 1960s. After the mid-1960s political crisis, it left the coalition and was in the opposition until 1976. It did very well in the 1974 state election, winning 18 of the 48 state seats.

PBDS born out of crisis

But its political strength weakened after an internal party crisis in the early 1980s culminating in the formation of Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS), which itself is facing a major leadership crisis now, with its future fate in the hands of the ROS.

After yesterday's Snap CEC meeting, Dundang told reporters that the party's parliamentary elections preparatory committee headed by Stanley Jugol had recommended the reactivation of the party's 62 divisional branches and start making preparations for the elections whatever the scenario might be.

The Snap chief said he was optimistic of a positive response on the ground based on the findings from members after a recent poll.

"Right now, the scenario in Snap is very fluid. Party members on the ground have urged us to defend the four parliamentary seats won in the last parliamentary elections.

The main objective of Snap, according to him, was firstly for Snap to defend the four seats if given the chance to do so.

As to whether Snap would also contest the rest of the 28 parliamentary seats, he added that this would depend on two factors - the response and feedbacks from members and supporters on the ground and the political situation prevailing at the time elections are called.