By Lian Cheng
KUCHING, April 20: The recent talk of an intense internal strife between two factions within Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) has ended as being just ‘a storm in a teacup’ following an amicable settlement between the two contentious factions.
According to a reliable source, acting president Datuk Joseph Salang Gandum held a meeting with seven representatives from Team B and both sides had come to a consensus that there will be no contest in its Triennial Delegates Conference (TDC) to be held in Sibu this coming Saturday and Sunday.
The source said one of the factions, Team B, had chosen to honour the party constitution by coming to terms with the decision of the Supreme Council meetings held on Jan 23, 2022 and Feb 11, 2022 respectively on the party leader line-up as well as the decision of the Credential Committee which met on April 18, 2022.
“Our party constitution says that the Supreme Council is the highest decision making body and its decisions cannot be overturned unless by another Supreme Council meeting. This applies to the decision of the Credential Committee which is final, so we need to honour the decisions made in these meetings or our party will be de-registered.
“Furthermore, the constitution requires us to submit our nomination forms 14 days before the TDC. We submitted ours on April 17 which is only seven days prior to the TDC. So we were informed that our nomination forms are not even open.
“So we will not contest for any posts, lest our party be de-registered by ROS (Registrar of Societies) for breach of the party’s constitution,” said the source, who is from Team A.
According to another source, one of the reasons for some leaders’ insistence to contest was because of the refusal of Salang to explicitly name the candidates for the appointed posts which included secretary-general and the deputy, treasurer general and the deputy as well as information chief and the deputy, despite all other contested posts having been filled up.
This was cleared after reference was made to the party’s constitution, which stated that the president can only appoint leaders to these posts after he has officially been elected. It would be against the constitution for him to do so prior to the TDC.
With both Team A and B coming to a consensus amicably, it is expected that all posts will remain uncontested. The leadership line-up proposed during the Supreme Council Meeting of Jan 23, 2022 and was re-confirmed during Supreme Council Meeting of Feb 11, 2022 will be honoured by all.
Both factions are also ready to give Salang the benefit of the doubt that he would do the right thing of honouring the decision of the Supreme Council by appointing the existing office bearers for the non-contesting posts when he is elected the president on this coming Sunday.
During the Jan 23, 2022 Supreme Council Meeting, it was agreed that Salang will be the president and Datuk Majang Renggi his deputy.
Datuk John Sikie Tayai, Datuk Liwan Lagang, Datuk Mong Dagang, Datuk Wilson Ugak Kumbong and Datuk Aaron Ago Dagang will be vice presidents.
The rest of the elected representatives including both State lawmakers and parliamentarians are members of the Supreme Council. — DayakDaily
