Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS), set up in 1983 as a breakaway group from the Sarawak National Party (Snap), is as good as dead and gone - itself now the victim of a similar leadership tussle from within.

With its deregistration announced on Oct 21, the party's 14 elected representatives found themselves, along with a claimed membership of 130,000, without a home.

But not, as it turned out, for long as nine of the elected representatives (six state assemblypersons and three MPs) in the faction led by State Land Development Minister Dr James Masing and their supporters, found another political home in the newly registered Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS).

All of a sudden PRS appeared like a rabbit from a magician's hat.

Registered as a multi-racial party but with core Dayak support, the speed of the approval was almost too good to be true. It even beat Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) whose registration took a little longer.

Formality and timing

One minute PBDS was gone, next minute PRS was ushered in. The high-level planning was executed with clock-work precision. Smooth indeed, everyone agreed.

That's not the end of the story. Three days later, the Sarawak Barisan Nasional met to endorse PRS' application to join the ruling coalition. It's eventual admission at federal level is a matter of formality - and timing too.

It's probably to wait for the next move of the remaining five elected representatives (three MPs and two state assemblypersons), including Deputy Foreign Minister Joseph Salang, aligned to former PBDS president Daniel Tajem. They are still without a party.

Where will they go? Almost everyone agree that it is mostly likely they will be absorbed into one or more of the existing component parties - PBB, Supp and SPDP. They have ruled out joining PRS, however.

"We will not join a party that is smaller than PBDS," Salang was quoted as saying in a Malay daily, Berita Harian .

Except for Stanley Ajang, (state rep for Belaga), who is a Kayan, the rest are Iban - Salang (Julau MP), Jewah Gerang (Lubok Antu MP), Aaron Dagang (Kanowit MP), and Ngemah state assemblyperson Gabriel Adit.

Salang is the only one in the group holding a government post.

Part of the BN

Jewah, a four-term MP, has talked about retiring from politics, so as far as he is concerned it probably doesn't matter anymore whether he is with or without a party. The rest are much younger and more well educated. They still have a lot of stamina and drive in them and it is a reasonable assumption that they are not about to give up, inspite of recent setbacks.

But there's little doubt they will want to continue to be part of the BN, but to do that they will either be following the same footsteps as the Masing group to form their own party and then apply to join the BN or easier still, apply to join any of the existing parties.

Taib has stated publicly the five can take their time to decide on their next move, but Masing has been saying that they should make up their mind quickly as their constituencies need looking after.

If Masing has a choice, he probably want his erstwhile opponents to stay out of the BN, so that he and PRS could claim the rights to represent all 14 seats when the time comes.

But Masing could end up being disappointed, for there may be forces that will ensure the split among the 14 is kept that way, with one or more of the component parties ending as beneficiaries. Supp has been mentioned as possibly the new home for most if not all the five elected representatives.

That is probably what many Dayak intellectuals who have been supporting the Tajem faction outside PBDS hope would happen.

Many of them are individuals who are well-educated, successful in their own careers and are financially strong or are able to count on others with the financial means to help them realize their ambitions.

They feel a strong commitment to helping their own community.

Other alternatives

They consider themselves as a new and younger breed of Dayaks who are ready to go into politics, using a platform that can help them to reach out to the grass-root Dayaks.

While Tajem may try to bring back PBDS through legal action, these younger Dayaks see that as not the only alternative for a platform to pursue a political struggle. There are Snap and State Reform Party (Star) or even Keadilan and Democratic Action Party(Dap). In other words, there are options open to them to fight elections.

Because more than two-thirds of the 62 state assembly seats are bumiputeras (Dayak/Malay/Melanau), their platform will have to be a broad-based cohesive group that will appeal to the rural populace and there are issues that are ripe for the picking too.

There is not much room within the BN, unless they are contented being political secretaries, board seats in statutory bodies or councillors.

Even though they realize taking on the BN with its awesome machinery may be tough, they feel the winds of change, with the increasingly disenchantment across the entire population with politicians in power, corruption and policies they see as a deprivation of people's rights such as on land.

Even if that would not lead to a revolutionary change at the coming state polls two years hence, that would be enough to send a signal to the Federal Government on the state of many Sarawakians' minds and feelings about the present ruling elite and their policies.

TONY THIEN is malaysiakini 's Sarawak-based stringer.