Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) president Leo Moggie today said he personally preferred a party consensus as the way to resolving the party leadership issue when he steps down.

He made the remarks in response to questions at a post supreme council meeting press conference in Marudi, Baram in northern Sarawak this afternoon.

But he refused to be drawn into comments o­n the announcement made in Kuching o­n Thursday by his party information chief Dr James Jemut Masing and vice president Sng Chee Hua that they would contest the two top party posts at the coming triennial delegates conference (TDC).

He also refused to comment o­n whether he would continue to stay o­n. All he was prepared to say, in response to a reporter's question, was "I have already answered that (question) before."

This would therefore imply that Moggie, who is also the Minister of Energy, Communications and Multimedia,

would stick to his decision to step down at the coming TDC.

Among those present at the press conference were PBDS deputy president Daniel Tajem, vice president Peter

Runin, secretary-general Stanley Ajang and treasurer-general Joseph Sallang Gandum.

With the exception of Masing, who is state minister of social development and urbanisation, PBDS Youth leader Joseph Entulu who is also assistant minister in the Chief Minister's Office and two other supreme council members, the rest were present at today's meeting held at Dewan Suarah in the administrative

headquarters of the Baram district, o­ne of Sarawak's largest administrative districts.

This included Sng who has been proposed by his own faction to stand for the deputy presidency.

Cordial and friendly

Today's meeting was held in "a cordial and friendly"atmosphere, according to a supreme council member Kilat Beriak, a lawyer.

"It dealt mainly with housekeeping matters," he told malaysiakini by phone, after a 90-minute meeting.

The meeting did not discuss the forthcoming triennial delegates conference nor the contentious issue over

the exact number of brances that could send delegates to the TDC.

Tajem, however, told reporters that the next supreme council to be held o­n the third Saturday of April in

Kuching would discuss the TDC date and other related matters.

Moggie denied ever telling a national Chinese newspaper reporter that Masing's decision to contest the top post along with Sng for the deputy president's post was creating a leadership crisis in PBDS.

Today's local edition of Sin Chew Daily , however, headlined the story o­n its brief interview with Moggie before the latter boarded a helicopter together with several other PBDS leaders bound for a remote longhouse in Ulu Baram o­n official duty yesterday.