The crisis-ridden Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) faction led by Dr James Masing is going ahead with a huge rally at the Town Padang in Sibu this Sunday.

Pelagus state assemblyperson and the event organising chairperson Larry Sng told reporters in Sibu this morning that about 10,000 people drawn from various parts of Sarawak are expected to attend.

The speakers will include faction leader Masing, who is also state minister of social development and urbanisation, deputy faction leader Sng Chee Hua, who is also Larry's father, the faction's women chief Doris Brodie and youth chief and assistant minister Joseph Entulu.

Larry said the main aim of the gathering was to answer accusations and allegations made recently against Masing and his group by former PBDS president Leo Moggie, his successor as president Daniel Tajem, party permanent chairman Edmund Langgu and deputy president Joseph Salang.

They would explain their version of the story of what had happened within the party leading to the present situation in which there are now two sets of leaders with Tajem leading one faction and Masing the other.

Julau gathering too

Inspite of what is understood to be a tacit understanding for a cooling-off period on the advice of top Barisan Nasional leadership pending an announcement, expected soon, by the Registrar of Societies (ROS) on the legality issue of the leadership status, Masing will also be going to Julau, Salang's parliamentary constituency, tomorrow to address a gathering in a longhouse in an area called Beladin.

Malaysiakini

learned that the Masing faction is to campaign for Sng as the candidate for the Julau constituency in the next general election. Sng served as the Julau MP for one term (1995-99) but was asked to make way for Salang in the 1999 general election.

Salang told malaysiakini that he and his supporters would also be going on the ground in Julau tomorrow, but to a different area in Kanowit, to meet with their supporters.

Meanwhile, leaders of both factions are still eagerly awaiting the ROS' decision on the party's future fate. Speculation is rife that the decision could either be followed by a show-cause letter or one upholding the election of Tajem and his supporters to party posts during the July 26 triennial delegates conference as legal.

Sources said the ROS had already made its decision and that this had been conveyed last Friday to Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Sarawak Chief Minister and state BN chairperson Abdul Taib Mahmud has already met both factions, and it is understood that he has advised both to tone down their rhetoric and try to work together.