Crisis-ridden Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) acting president Daniel Tajem is consulting party colleagues to appoint new members to the supreme council replacing those whose appointments lapsed when Leo Moggie resigned as president yesterday.

Tajem told reporters at Kuching International Airport this morning on his return from Kuala Lumpur after meeting Moggie that he had re-appointed Stanley Ajang, the state assemblyperson for Belaga, as secretary-general and the Julau member of Parliament Joseph Salang as treasurer-general.

Accompanying him on the same flight back to Kuching were PBDS permanent chairman Edmund Langgu, Ajang and Salang.

"I am holding consultations with my party colleagues tonight and tomorrow on the eight appointments to eight posts in the 32-member supreme council," he added.

Letters informing the 10 appointed members their appointment had lapsed with the president's resignation was signed by Moggie and faxed to them late yesterday afternoon.

Presidential power

One party official told malaysiakini that all except three had not received the faxed notifications. "Their fax machines were not responding," he said. "But the hard copies are being delivered."

Tajem said as president, Moggie had in the first place exercised his powers under the party constitution and appointed 10 members to the supreme council after the last triennial delegates conference (TDC) in 2000.

They included Ajang as secretary-general, Salang as treasurer-general, Dr James Masing as information chief, Dublin Unting, John Sikie, Sim Lai Ann, Mong Dagang, Paul Kadang and Assan Ngang.

Except for Ajang, Salang and Kadang, the rest of the appointed members, including Masing, had failed to get themselves elected during the last TDC.

Tajem who as deputy president has automatically moved up as acting president until the next TDC is expected to fill the rest of the appointed posts with members who he can count on to support him and his group in any crucial voting during the supreme council meetings.

Last week, after two supreme council members defected to the pro-Masing-Sng Chee Hua side, the Tajem-Salang faction is left with equal number of SC members (16), leaving Moggie with the casting vote.

In control

By being able to appoint new members, Tajem is assured of control in the supreme council which is expected to decide next on the composition of the crucial credentials committee that is supposed to scrutinise the eligibility of branches to attend and vote at next month's TDC.

Credentials committee chairman Dr Jawie Masing suspended their meeting after two days of deliberations last week, after the four remaining members were equally split on certain vital issues, slowing down significantly the work of the committee.

Jawie threatened to quit as chairman but was later prevailed to stay on by some party leaders. He was later quoted as saying they were only taking a break as they needed some fresh air before going back to work again.

But Moggie's decision to suddenly resign as party leader had come as a surprise to many, including Masing, the presidential aspirant and state social development and urbanisation minister, who was quoted in an English-language daily The Borneo Post as saying he was shocked by it.

Moggie's decision, according to reliable sources, was made after meeting a group of senior party leaders, led by Tajem, in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

They had briefed Moggie who had just returned from an official trip overseas of new developments within the party, including plans by the rival group, led by Masing, to hold a big gathering in Kapit on Saturday, June 28.

PM and DPM briefed

According to reports, the Masing group plans to pass a motion of no-confidence in Moggie at the gathering to be attended by representatives from some 170 branches supporting them and to elect Masing as new president and Sng Chee Hua as deputy president.

"Moggie is very disappointed with Masing for what he is doing to the party," one source told malaysiakini.

So he decided to quit, after briefing Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mahathir and the Deputy Prime

Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on the latest development. It is also believed he may

have sent words of his resignation as PBDS president to Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud.

Meanwhile, in his immediate reaction , Masing said he would be consulting those state assemblypersons and members of parliament as well as branches supporting him on their next course of action.

PBDS Youth leader Joseph Entulu who is aligned to the Masing-Sng faction told reporters this morning that he would talk to the media only later on the latest development.

Referring to Tajem's Kuching airport arrival statement, he added:" Let the story runs today first."