Happy 5th Anniversary to SPDP

Five years ago, today, at one corner of the Registrar of Societies office in Putrajaya, the registration certificate was being prepared to mark the birth of the Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP). The Party was registered in accordance with Section 7 of the Societies Act, 1966. The certificate was stamped officially with 8th November 2002 as the official birthday of SPDP.

The official Registration Certificate of SPDP.

The protem President, Datuk Seri William and YB Peter Nansian showing the Borang 3 to the media on 13th November 2002.

Datuk Seri William with the late Dato Sri Peter Tinggom (left) and YB Dr. Judson Tagal (right) at the press conference.

15th November 2002: SPDP was officially admitted into the Barisan Nasional.

After the formation, SPDP have only about two months to organise its 1st General Meeting. Everyone was working extra hard to make it a success. The opening were great with drum performance by the group from Sarawak Cultural Village. Myself and Banyi Beriak were given the task to create a symbolic launching. Those days, it was the ‘in’ thing to have a multimedia presentation for an event launch. It took me about a month to complete my presentation for the launching ceremony.

Pehin Sri Taib launching the 1st General Meeting on 8th February 2003.

With little resources, and the need to bring the audience through the history of SNAP and gradually the formation of SPDP, it was a day and night work, meetings and trial runs to attend with the President.

And, when the time finally come, despite the minor glitch in the photo arrangement of the party leaders, all was smoothly presented. Five trial runs on the night before and attended by party leaders, no one notice the photo arrangement. To those who felt bad about it, well, the photos were arranged based on alphabetical order.

I was honored to do the multimedia presentation for the launching of the Party Meeting.

Going back in time, the birth of SPDP was unavoidable considering the fact the the two rival factions would never come to term and to come to a reconciliation. Despite numerous calls by the State Barisan Nasional component party leaders, to seek peace between the two factions, the people of Sarawak knew that Sarawak National Party (SNAP) will be deregistered and that would eventually mark the end of its golden era, and SPDP will be the Party to look out for.

Pehin Sri Taib chairing one of the meeting to discuss the status of SNAP and SPDP.

While we are saddened with the problems facing SNAP, we should also be thankful to their ex-President, Datuk Amar James Wong, for his contribution to the people of Sarawak while he was a full minister with the Ministry of Environment and Public Health. It was during his tenure that the City Councils and Local Councils were first provided with ICT training. I was directly involved in drafting the training syllabus, manuals, training schedule and delivery of the training package itself. We were the first in Sarawak to do mobile computer training. Twenty units of multimedia and internet-ready computers packed in a van - all set to travel from Lawas right up to Lundu. Introduction to Computers, Windows ME, Using Email and Internet Relay Chat was among the module that I delivered to the Council members (yupp.. they were alien to those technologies that time).

Datuk Amar James Wong

And tomorrow, SPDP will celebrate its 5th Anniversary, and with this opportunity, I would like to wish the President, YB Datuk Seri William Mawan, the Supreme Council members, Youth Wing, Women Wing and all party members the best of luck and may the Party progress and will be able to deliver all the seat allocated to them during the coming Parliamentary election.

SPDP President, YB Datuk Seri William Mawan Ikom

Note to all party members who are reading this blog:
Don’t forget to turn up in full force for our Prime Minister, YB Dato Seri Abdullah Badawi’s visit to Miri on 12th November 2007.

Cheeky Note to the President:
YB Datuk, it is high time that the Party set up a Web Team and put the Party activities, leaders speeches, etc on the Internet for the young voters to read and digest. While the rest of the Barisan Nasional parties have been utilising the power of the Internet to fence off unnecessary and uncalled for reports and blogs wrote against them, it will be a disappointment to the potential new members, who are mostly made up of educated Sarawak, not be able to access the correct and reliable information about this Party..

What do we call it?… Reaching Out!