KUCHING: The bid to register Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) is a contingency plan to prepare for the possible deregistration of Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS), said Edward Kurik, the deputy youth leader aligned to Datuk Dr James Masing’s faction.
“In the event that PBDS is deregistered, there will be a party to accommodate all its legislators instead of ‘parking’ them with existing Barisan Nasional parties,” he said.
He likened the formation of the PRS that involved several close associates of Dr Masing to “getting the umbrella ready before the rains”.
The PRS headed by pro tem chairman Sidi Munan is awaiting the approval from the Registrar of Societies (ROS).
The ROS has yet to decide on the fate of the 20-year-old PBDS, which was split into two factions, one headed by Dr Masing and the other by Datuk Daniel Tajem.
In a statement yesterday, Kurik gave several reasons why the Tajem and Dr Masing groups could not reconcile although it was the wishes of the Barisan leadership for them to patch up.
Kurik said it was obvious that Tajem’s group did not want to compromise with its rival because it did not allow any nomination from Dr Masing’s group in the party’s triennial delegates’ conference (TDC) in late July.
That prompted Dr Masing’s group to hold a separate TDC and elect another set of leaders.
According to Kurik, the Tajem’s faction had refused to negotiate and reconcile with the opposing side.
Commenting on Barisan secretary-general Tan Sri Mohamed Rahmat’s statement last week that forming PRS was not the way to resolve PBDS’ leadership problem, Kurik said this did not apply to PBDS as Tajem’s group did not want to resolve the crisis.
On Mohamed Rahmat’s remark that the coalition was unlikely to admit the PRS, he said should PBDS be deregistered and PRS took its place in Barisan, the number of components in the coalition would still remain at 14.
