The troubled Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) is likely to be given a second chance to resolve its long-drawn leadership dispute before any move to de-register it, according to a reliable source.

"Recent developments are intended as a wake-up call for the two rival factions to face the possibility of a second and final de-registration unless they are willing to come together and save the party," the source added.

On Wednesday, the Barisan Nasional management committee meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak discussed the reasons for the aborted party elections originally scheduled on October 9-10 and made certain recommendations for the BN supreme council to consider as a way of resolving the PBDS crisis.

To save the party

One recommendation is that in the event the two factions, one led by party president Daniel Tajem and the other by former information chief Dr James Masing, cannot agree on any solution to end the leadership dispute is to de-register the party.

"I do not think Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi will as yet take such a drastic action (to de-register the party). He will probably want Tajem and Masing a second chance and come back to the BN technical committee and work something out to save the party," the source told malaysiakini today.

Meanwhile, a Sarawak tabloid The Malaysian Today quoted a BN headquarters official in Kuala Lumpur as saying that they had still not been informed by the Prime Minister's Office of the date for the next BN supreme council meeting.

Top BN leaders had intervened in the PBDS leadership dispute to try and save the Dayak-based party with 14 elected representatives and a largely rural membership of about 130,000 from a permanent split.

With state elections due in two years' time, the BN leadership is anxious to resolve the problem as quickly as possible.