Sarawak Minister of Environment and Public Health William Mawan has ruffled feathers with his comments over the delay in appointing nominees of Barisan National partner Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) as local councillors.

He attributed this to the leadership tussle in the party, since the two rival factions want to see their nominees on the state's 25 councils.

The two-year term of service of some 600 councillors in Sarawak had been extended to June 30, pending the announcement of new appointees.

The appointments were to have been announced in January since the terms of most of the councillors had expired on Dec 31 last year. However, the decision was postponed to end March, before being put off again.

"PBDS will not be rushed into proposing their list of councillors for the councils," Mawan was quoted as saying by English-language daily Borneo Post .

Mawan, who is president of the newly formed Sarawak Democratic Progressive Party (SPDP), said that - given the current situation in PBDS - he expected another list of nominees to be submitted.

"With this in mind, it is therefore best to allow the situation in PBDS to cool off somewhat before a decision is made on the appointments," said the minister who himself is battle-scarred from a recent crisis which destroyed his former party Sarawak National Party (Snap).

Mawan said the final say on appointment of councillors lies with the state cabinet and a decision would be made when the time comes.

"However, if I am given the assurance that the submitted list is the only one, we can proceed," he said in the report.

Reason for delay

On May 30, malaysiakini reported that PBDS secretary-general Stanley Ajang had submitted at the request of the ministry a list of nominees for councillor positions.

However, the rival faction had sought to make changes to the list despite being told that it was the official one from the Barisan Nasional component party.

This was one of the principal reasons for the delay in the announcement of new councillors in Sarawak, leading to the extension of the terms of current councillors. Most of them should have stopped serving last December.

Mawan recently said the announcement of new appointments was likely to be made within the next three months or even at the year's end.

'In the know'

The minister's comments irked former PBDS supreme council member Dublin Unting, who was among 10 supreme council members axed after Daniel Tajem became president recently.

In a press statement, Unting - who is aligned to Tajem's rival James Masing - said both Masing and he are members of the state cabinet committee on the appointment of councillors and they know what is going on.

Unting, who is assistant minister of social development and urbanisation, also it was not true that the crisis in PBDS had stalled the appointment of the new councillors.

He said: "To the best of my knowledge, as a member of the cabinet committee on the appointment of councillors, the quota of councillors for each BN component party in each district has not been decided."

Unting also denied the claim that PBDS had submitted two separate lists of proposed councillors to the ministry.

It is learnt that Mawan's response was prompted by PBDS leaders aligned to Masing who were said to have jumped the gun by congratulating - via a local newspaper - supporter Philimon Nuing on approval of his appointment as the wali kota (mayor) of Kapit in central Sarawak.

Last week, the minister had confirmed that the government had agreed to Philimon's appointment, but that an official letter would only be sent later.

Mawan also allegedly caused disquiet in another BN component - the Sarawak United People's Party (Supp) - when he said last week that a candidate from his party would most likely be appointed the chairperson of the Sibu Urban District Council.

The post is traditionally held by SUPP members, but the party has remained mum over the issue.