The quagmire in Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) continued today with staff at the party headquarters refusing to release boxes containing annual returns of some 150 party branches to a group of members aligned to information chief and presidential aspirant Dr James Jemut Masing.

Despite being accompanied by branch officials, the group were told much to their chagrin that they would not be able to collect the boxes.

One of the leaders, PBDS Youth leader Joseph Entulu, was informed that secretary-general Stanley Ajang had instructed the staff to o­nly release the written minutes of annual general meetings to the individual branches and to branch chairpersons and secretaries.

The party headquarters had also insisted that it should keep copies of the annual returns for office

records.

Upon hearing this, Entulu and some 300 supporters left the building and made their way to a nearby hotel where they waited for the arrival of Masing.

The minutes of the annual general meetings of 177 branches, which met between January and February, were kept in seven sealed boxes. They were delivered to the party headquarters o­n March 31.

A week ago, several party Youth leaders took back o­ne of the boxes said to contain the annual returns of some 50 branches. The remaining six boxes are in the custody of the headquarters.

Initially, March 31 was fixed as the deadline for submission of the minutes but a few days before the expiry date, the secretary-general extended the deadline to May 15.

Missing boxes

One Masing supporter, PBDS supreme council member Sidi Munan told malaysiakini that they wanted to collect the boxes to ensure that none of the branches would be penalised unnecessarily as a result of the delay in the submission of their returns to the Registrar of Societies (ROS).

According to him, the law stipulated that annual returns be submitted to the ROS within 60 days of the date of a branch annual general meeting in prescribed forms which must be counter-signed by principal office-bearers of the party.

However, malaysiakini learnt from reliable sources that the Masing faction took back the same set of annual returns of some 160 branches yesterday, which they had submitted directly to the ROS office without going through the party headquarters.

It was reported earlier that the ROS office had asked the party to take back the annual returns as many had not been accompanied by Form 9 which required such submission to the ROS to be counter-signed by at least o­ne principal office-bearer of the party, such as the secretary-general.

The Masing faction's eagerness to take the boxes has sparked off much speculation, including rumours that o­ne or two of the boxes have gone missing from the party headquarters.

A party headquarters spokesperson told malaysiakini the six boxes were being kept in a safe which o­nly certain partly leaders have access to.

Unfair and high-handed

The Masing faction has accused its rivals - who control the party headquarters and support deputy president and presidential aspirant Daniel Tajem and treasurer-general Joseph Salang Gandum as his deputy - of deliberately making things difficult for them.

At a press conference at the Grand Continental hotel later, Masing, whose running-mate is vice-president Sng Chee Hua, said the extension of the deadline for submitting the annual returns with such short notice was "unfair" for his faction.

He added that the party headquarters had acted in a high-handed manner when it refused to release the boxes.

"It's going to be difficult to work now in a manner we have been used to for the last 20 years," he said.

Masing said this was not the first time a contest had erupted for the top posts and added that in the past "we followed convention in a manner acceptable to all".

"Apparently, convention has been thrown away. They want to strictly follow the constitution," he added.

However, Masing said his faction had anticipated such moves and called all branch chairpersons and secretaries who supported them for a meeting in Kuching last night.

The PBDS leader said he believed that at least half of them would call for fresh elections so that they could submit their annual returns anew to the ROS in accordance with proper rules and procedures.

"Whatever it is, we will comply (with the roles). I hope they do the same. We have reason to believe some of them may not," he added.

Smear campaign

Responding to a question, Masing said he was aware of a smear campaign against him alleging that he was not looking after Dayak interests in relation to the native customary rights land issue and that the government was robbing the natives of their land.

He was also accused of having close ties with Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud.

Dismissing the first allegation as a lie, he however said the second was true. "What do you expect me to do? He is my boss (the chief minister)."

According to Masing, native land owners had applied to the government to develop o­ne million acres of their land.

"So far, o­nly 32,000 acres have been developed," he said, adding that the government was trying its best to help the people.

"Yet we have people trying to sabotage the efforts," he said.

Masing advised his rivals not to arouse the feelings of the natives unnecessarily over the land

issue.

"I was there before," he said, referring to his eight years in the opposition before PBDS returned to the Barisan Nasional.

"It will not work. It is better to work within the system. It is a arduous journey outside. Not many can survive that," he added.

Also present at the press conference was Sng and several other leaders.