Commentary
The theme of betrayal was prominent in a recent speech by Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) president Tan Sri Dr James Masing at the party’s last Supreme Council meeting before it charges into the political battleground of the coming 14th general election.
According to a Supreme Council member who wished to remain anonymous, the party president did not mince his words and has never been clearer in his message to his group of lieutenants. Masing in no uncertain terms reminded the party’s top guns to be on their toes and be vigilant at all times.
While it is normal for any ship’s captain to give a ‘pep’ talk to his sailors before the onset of the voyage, this time round, something was definitely different. According to the Supreme Council member, Masing also recalled the glory days of Dayakism and attributed the success of now defunct Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) to unity within the Dayak communities and among their leaders. Despite being a so-called pauper political party without any resources, the party managed to secure 15 seats in the 1987 state elections.
However, the glory days of PBDS were short-lived. Seen as a threat by external political contenders, plans were made to tear PBDS and the spirit of Dayakism into shreds. Fat carrots were dangled to entice key PBDS politicians. The formula of exchanging conscience for glory, souls for financial gains and unity for positions, worked like a charm. Betrayal began, and traitors leap-frogged to the ‘other side.’
Taking this as an example, Masing said as PRS gets stronger by the day, and with GE14 just around the corner, the carrots dangled will get bigger and the frequency of attempts to destabilise PRS will intensify.
With such a message from the party president and reading between the lines, one cannot help but think that the PRS president is deliberately delivering this message to certain Supreme Council Member(s), and if that is the case, the president must have some idea that maybe certain soul-selling deals have been made.
Digging further, when asked by DayakDaily why the party president said what he did, the unnamed Supreme Council member without revealing names explained that one ‘very senior PRS SC Member’ (which we shall just refer to as ‘VSP’) has at one formal state occasion revealed to another PRS Council Member that he had worked to undermine and sabotage four PRS state assemblymen in the recent Sarawak State Election. The alleged areas cited by Mr VSP are Tamin, Batang Ai, Tatau and Balai Ringin.
According to our informer, Mr ‘VSP’ made this statement quite proudly and certainly audible, in front of another very senior politician from another Barisan Nasional (BN) component party. Why Mr VSP did that is anybody’s guess, but can we take that incident as a sign and the basis that something is amiss and going on between these two senior politicians from different component parties?
When asked further, DayakDaily’s informer refused to reveal more and said his party president has strong enough reasons to suspect that a potential ‘sell-out’ is going on and suffice to say, the president’s suspicions is backed with evidence he has in hand. According to this deep throat, this evidence has been submitted to the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister and he hoped that this information will be published to let the other party knows that PRS is aware of what is going on. — DayakDaily
