IF there is such a title as “Sarawak’s most prolific political frog”, Larry Sng will certainly be a strong front-runner for it, said a pundit.

Universiti Malaya’s Awang Azman Awang Pawi told The Malaysian Insight that no other Sarawak politician has come close when it came to party-hopping.

Sng, the former state PKR chairman, had switched parties and political allegiance four times in 20 years.

The new Muhyiddin Yassin supporter, following in the footsteps of his millionaire businessman father Sng Chee Hua, got into politics at the age of 22 when he joined the predominantly Dayak Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) in 2001.

His entry was to enable the party to put him up as a candidate to replace his father in the Pelagus seat in the 2001 state election.

Sng won and continued to be its assemblyman for two terms.

As a political rookie, he watched his father, then a party vice-president play a key role in the power struggle in the Dayak party that eventually led to its de-registration in 2003.

The elder Sng then had teamed up with the then party information chief James Masing in the tussle for the party’s two top posts – Masing for president and the elder Sng as his deputy.

When the party was de-registered, Masing and Sng formed their own party, Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS).

The younger Sng followed but the Masing-Sng senior partnership lasted only two years.

Soon after the 2006 state election, the father and son engineered an attempt to topple Masing in a fashion reminiscent of what the elder Sng did in PBDS. In the two-year tussle, PBDS had two presidents, two supreme councils and two headquarters.

When the Registrar of Societies (ROS) in 2008 declared Masing the legal president, the axe came swift for the Sngs and their supporters.

Without a party, the state Barisan Nasional (BN) could not endorse Sng to defend his Pelagus seat in the 2011 state election.

In 2012, he tried to engineer his way out of the political wilderness via the Sarawak Workers Party (SWP) he had set up with the sole aim of taking on PRS in the 2013 general election.

Sng contested in the Dayak-majority seat of Lubok Antu in the general election but lost. So did all the SWP candidates. In April 2016, Sng unexpectedly resigned.

In a posting on his Facebook to explain the reason why he left the party he founded, Sng said he felt he could not serve the constituents without being in BN.

He, however, made a successful comeback in the 2018 general election, winning the Julau seat as an independent. The win paved the way for him to join PKR.

Recent move not surprising

Awang Azman, however, said Sng quitting PKR did not surprise him.

“He has gone from PBDS, PRS, became an independent state assemblyman and even set up SWP.

“Changing his political stand frequently is nothing new with him.”

Universiti Putra’s political expert Jayum Jawan said since Sng was “not that significant in the overall political scenario in Sarawak”, his departure will have no impact on PKR.

“Neither had his presence made PKR any more acceptable among the Chinese, his own community, nor the Dayaks who elected him in Julau. So his exit from PKR will not foreseeably weaken the party as well,” Jayum said.

“The kid doesn’t have any political reputation”.

The question that remains now is which political party is willing to take him aboard.

University of Tasmania’s director of the Asia Institute, James Chin, said he was made to understand Sng “had already decided which party to join but he is keeping quiet”.

“There are rumours that he might think of going back to Sarawak’s ruling coalition Gabungan Parti Sarawak,” Chin added.

Earlier, Parti Rakyat Sarawak president James Masing, a member of GPS, told The Malaysian Insight Sng is not welcomed in his party, adding that they will fight for the Julau seat. – March 4, 2021.