Leaders of the deregistered Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) said today they would appeal to Prime Minister and Home Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on the Registrar of Societies' decision to deregister the party yesterday.

At the same time, they also ruled out, for the time being at least, of their five elected representatives joining or 'parking' themselves with any of the component parties in the ruling Barisan Nasional.

In a statement, party president Daniel Tajem described the ROS' decision yesterday as "totally unexpected, stunning setback and extreme disappointment".

"That the ROS has not given any reason for the decision is strange. Oddly enough, we see reason to hope in the ROS' refusal to give reasons for its decision," he said.

The party maintained that it had duly conformed with all provisions of the Societies Act with respect to its triennial delegates conference on July 26-27, 2003.

"This is the reason we will appeal against the ROS' decision," he added.

Tajem said they believed the latest decision of the ROS was "only a temporary obstacle and not a permanent hindrance."

"For that reason we urge PBDS members, supporters and sympathisers to remain calm and resist the temptation to engage in recrimination and blame-fixing."

Still within BN

He added that disorderly emotion would only muddy the waters, believing that "calm and cool reasoning, albeit under duress, will see us eventually through the unkind cut of party deregistration".

Tajem also said they also had no intention to detach themselves from the family of the Barisan Nasional either at state or federal levels. "We are wedded to the BN in good times and in bad."

He said they had never closed the door to conciliation with dissidents within the party.

"We recognise that the pacification of factions is as much a challenge to wise democratic leadership as intramural feuding is a reality to democratic politicking."

"Now we await the process of appeal of the ROS decision in the unwavering belief that we do not deserve the calamity of deregistration."

Tajem also said that "the cause of legitimate representations of Dayak aspirations within Malaysian political firmament will yet overcome its most recent setback."

Meanwhile, the party also set a letter and fax to Leo Moggie, the party's former president, saying that they all agreed he should remain in his present ministerial position in the federal cabinet.

There has been persistent rumours that Moggie, the Minister of Energy, Communications and Multimedia, would resign and quit politics following the ROS' decision. He is a strong supporter of the PBDS group led by Tajem.