The Masing-Sng faction in the Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) is said to have asked their lawyers to prepare a draft constitution for a new political party as part of a contingency plan should they fail to wrest control of the party or if the party election is delayed.

A reliable source told malaysiakini that o­ne name that is being proposed is "Parti Kitai." It is not certain what the acronym Kitai stands for although the word in Iban means "ours".

The name appeared above the party's emblem which was the backdrop of last month's press conference by faction leader Dr James Masing to announce his intention to contest the top party post in the coming election.

Masing ( left ), who is PBDS information chief and state minister for social development and urbanisation, had also announced his running-mate for the deputy president post to be Sng Chee Hua, currently a vice-president in the party.

It is also learnt that "Parti Kitai" has been used alongside the party emblem in gatherings of the Masing-Sng faction outside of Kuching in recent weeks.

Malaysiakini was informed that although this is a closely-guarded 'secret' confined to a small group of leaders in the faction, word has already leaked out to certain media.

The leak is believed to be intended as a message for the rival faction aligned to party president Leo Moggie, that they risk splitting the party "if they choose to continue ignoring political realities".

The rival faction is rooting for deputy president Daniel Tajem as president and treasurer-general and Julau member of Parliament Joseph Salang Gandum as deputy president.

Looking forward to election

The Masing faction's chances of winning have been bolstered by what they say is overwhelming support from party branches throughout Sarawak.

As of Monday, they claim to have secured support from 171 out of the party's 206 branches, notwithstanding the dispute about the actual number of registered branches in the party.

According to most observers, assuming that Masing supporters have followed all procedures in holding their branch annual general meetings and selecting their delegates to the party's forthcoming triennial delegates conference, then it would be an uphill battle for the rival faction.

They concede that the Masing group has more than an even chance of winning.

They submitted the annual returns of the 171 branches to the party headquarters in seven stainless steel containers o­n Monday.

The Masing faction has asked the party's secretary-general Stanley Ajang, who is also a Moggie

supporter and the state assemblyperson for Belaga, to go through the returns as quickly as possibly and to submit them to the Registrar of Societies well ahead of the conference.

One faction leader told malaysiakini that he hoped there would not be any unnecessary delay o­n this.

The Tajem-Salang faction do not appear to be as anxious in proceeding with the conference, and may even try to delay the election due to mounting pressure over the leadership tussle.

Although the constitution provides that the conference must be held in August this year, there is provision if circumstances warrant it to put it off by six months, bringing it to February next year.

Snap tactics

If the Masing-Sng faction are not prepared to wait that long, they may firstly move to hold an extraordinary general meeting.

If so, this would be similar to the modus operandi of last year's breakaway faction of the Sarawak National Party (SNAP), which in the end succeeded in forming a new party.

Before that however, it went through a confusing period of having two sets of elected leaders operating at the same time.

A possible alternative is, if the parliamentary elections are seen to be just around the corner, for the Masing-Sng faction to pull the nine elected representatives o­n their side out of the party, get a

new party registered as quickly as possible, and apply to be a member of the Barisan Nasional, according to o­ne political analyst.

But this could prove to be dicey unless they have the backing of the top BN leadership at both state and federal levels.

The question that is being asked is, can the Masing-Sng faction pull off the same strategy as Snap's erstwhile vice-president William Mawan and his breakaway group?

TONY THIEN is malaysiakini's Sarawak correspondent.