In what is seen as the first shot taken by a rival faction against their opponents, the Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) state assemblyperson for Ngemah Gabriel Adit Demong has described the pact forged between party information chief Dr James Jemut Masing and vice president Sng Chee Hua as "an unholy alliance."

He was quoted in today's Borneo Post , an English daily, as questioning the need and the motive behind

the announcement by the duo to contest for the two top party posts two days ahead of the party's supreme

council meeting in Marudi.

He added that he could not understand why they made the announcement when the party had not even announced the date for the forthcoming triennial delegates conference (TDC).

The Borneo Post report said that "Adit agreed that the fact the announcement was timed so that the printed press would carry it in their pages o­n the eve of the supreme council meeting o­n Saturday (today) was just plain suspicious."

"They may be trying to pressure Leo Moggie (PBDS president) into retiring when all the grassroots actually want him to stay o­n," Adit , a nephew of Moggie, was quoted as saying.

"What they are doing will have a bad impact o­n the party. You don't pressure your president like that. I tell you, Masing and Sng are an unholy alliance", he said.

At Thursday's press conference, after saying, in response to questions, that this was an internal party matter and that the Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud would not interfere into PBDS' internal affairs, Masing also said he hoped that there would be no "external inflence" trying to get Moggie not to step down.

To Masing, Adit said:" I hope they (Masing and his group) are not the o­nes who are being influenced by others."

According to the Borneo Post, Adit reiterated that the party's two top posts should be held by Dayak leaders, but this, he added, did not mean that PBDS is not a multi-racial party.

"I am no being chauvinistic, but I think everybody should know where their roles are in the party and they should not overstep their roles," Adit was also quoted as saying, referring to similarities with the Sarawak United People's Party (Supp).

He said Supp is a multi-racial party but everyone knows their place in the party and no o­ne questioned why top posts in the party are held by Chinese.

Meanwhile, newspaper reports today said Moggie, who is also Minister of Energy, Communications and Multimedia, was non-commital when asked about the possibility of the TDC being postponed.

He was quoted as saying that so far none of the branches had asked for any postponement.