The fight for leadership control of Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) is growing in intensity with its youth chief Joseph Entulu publicly backing prospective presidential aspirant Dr James Jemut Masing.

Although Entulu, an assistant minister in the Chief Minister's Office, is known as a staunch supporter of party information chief and state minister of social development and urbanisation Masing ( photo ), this is the first time he has publicly declared his stand and it is expected to trigger off more declaration of public support for Masing's bid for the president post.

Entulu was the PBDS leader who suggested three years ago that in the interest of Dayak unity leaders of PBDS and the then Sarawak National Party (Snap) considered the possibility of a merger.

(Snap was de-registered last November following an internal crisis and all its elected representatives have all joined the newly-formed Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party).

In a press statement, Entulu said he supported Masing's stand o­n the need for the Dayak-based party to discard its 'ethnic chauvinism' approach.

Spelling out the path

The PBDS Youth leader said : "While the applause for a gung-ho politician may be loud, the end result based o­n honest mathematical political logic is o­nly a failure. This, in turn, leads to marginalisation of our supporters from various opportunities."

In what is largely seen as firing a salvo at his opponents within the party and other critics ahead of the party's forthcoming triennial delegates conference, Masing called for "a more multi-racial outlook of the party, which has been in existence for almost 20 years and has always been seen and accepted by many to be a Dayak-based political organisation."

This is seen by many as a clear indication to pave the way for him and his running mate for the No 2 post Sng Chee Hua, o­ne of the party's vice presidents, to be accepted by delegates.

Masing said multi-racialism should be seen to be practised in the party's line-up and not merely confined to the wordings in the party constitution.

Entulu said the party's youth movement wanted to make "a clarion call to all branches to clearly think through their nominations for the various elected positions in the party in the coming TDC."

The Youth also urged those who aspired to take over the party's leadership to emulate Masing in spelling out "the prospective path which they want to lead PBDS to."

"Failure to do so is a great disservice to the delegates and party supporters."

Most observers believe that the most likely scenario now is a Tajem-Salang versus Masing-Sng contest for the two top posts in the party.

Daniel Tajem is the party's incumbent deputy president whom party president Leo Moggie appears to favour strongly as his successor when he steps down as president during the TDC scheduled in September this year. Moggie is said to be pushing the party treasurer and member of parliament for Julau Joseph Salang anak Gandum ( photo ) for the No 2 post.

Masing sees this as an attempt to push him aside, and recent developments would seem to suggest that unless he fights back, he is likely to end up without any party post. He has now teamed up with the most unlikely ally in Sng Chee Hua, who in the 2003 TDC backed Tajem , as his running mate.

Bitter battle

There is already a lot of distrust between the two factions, o­ne led by Moggie, the federal Minister of Energy, Telecommunications and Multimedia, and the other by Masing, who is widely known to enjoy strong support from the state leadership.

The Sarawak Tribune

said today in its report that "most political observers believe that the tussle for the top post, following Moggie's decision to step down as president in September this year, will be more intense than during the previous TDC in the year 2000."

Meanwhile, several Dayak leaders who asked not to be identified said Masing's statement that multi-ethnic chauvinism within the party must be discarded was perhaps intended to suggest that his opponents in the party were "all extremists".

"Whether you like it or not, PBDS is a Dayak-based party and it has to articulate the hopes and aspirations of the Dayaks," o­ne told malaysiakini .

"The Sarawak United People's Party (Supp) is a multi-racial party but it is Chinese-based from which is draws its electoral support largely from," another said. "None of its Chinese leaders has ever gone round saying that we should not o­nly in terms of fighting for Chinese interests. It all goes without saying."

Last week, Masing had said PBDS leaders should not be multi-ethnically chauvinistic, implying they should not o­nly think in terms of fighting for Dayaks interests.

Controversial paper

His statement had come at a time when Dayak leaders from varied political party affiliations, professions and academic backgrounds had got together to lend support for the formation of a Sarawak Dayak Graduates Association and the Sarawak Dayak Chamber of Commerce.

At a recent forum focusing o­n social transformation within the Dayak community, in conjunction with the inauguration of the Sarawak Dayak Graduates Association, the distribution of a paper to Dayak elected representatives had reportedly upset some powerful political interests.

The paper, prepared by a local university lecturer, an Iban from Sibu, was based o­n detailed studies to assist Dayak elected representatives present arguments if they so chose to the Government for an increase in Dayak-based electoral constituencies during the next review o­n the delineation of constituencies.

Malaysiakini

understands that the SDGA was even asked to apologise to the authorities because of the distribution of that paper. However it saw no reason or basis for doing so, as it felt the views were strictly those of the author/lecturer.

Some quarters see the distribution of the paper was getting the association involved in local politics. Its officials that malaysiakini spoke to said the claim was far from the truth.

In its news analysis by its report Robert Kenneth, o­n the leadership tussle, the Sarawak Tribune said the leadership battle is expected to be bitter and "more dirty" than that at the last TDC in 2000.

It quoted o­ne observer as saying:"What I mean by dirtier need not to be explained because I believe that the party members and supporters already know about it." In the last TDC Masing trying to unseat the incumbent deputy president Tajem was soundly defeated.

Divided camps

According to the Tribune , there are also talks that the Masing-Sng alliance is planning to garner the support of as many branches as possible to nominate Sng's son, Larry, the 23-year-old state assemblyperson, to contest for the Youth chief post and take over from Entulu who is also in Masing-Sng camp, as Entulu will be vying for a vice president's post.

It identified several elected representatives as the alliance's supporters. They include the members of parliament Jimmy Donald, Billy Abit Joo and Joseph Mauh Ikeh and state assemblypersons Entulu, John Sikie Tayai, Dublin Unting, Mong Dagang, Larry Sng, as well as former PBDS executive secretary Sidi Munan who was o­nce Tajem's right hand man and the party's former vice president Wilfred Rata Nissom.

The Moggie-Tajem-Sallang alliance, meanwhile, is, according to the paper, backed ,among others, by the party's secretary general Stanley Ajang, member of parliament for Lubok Antu Jawah Gerang, state assemblyperson for Ngemah Gabriel Adit and the party's vice president, Peter Runin.

"The Masing-Sng alliance has been acting fast, claiming that 22 branches in Lanang, Tamin and Kakus wanted Masing to be nominated for the president's post and Sng for the deputy president's post," the Tribune said.

It added that the alliance also has the support of 34 branches in Lundu, Tanjung Datu and Tasik Biru Divisions while the Moggie-Tajem-Salang alliance is still silent.