Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) has been deregistered effective today, Home Minister Azmi Khalid announced in Putrajaya this afternoon.

In the same breath, he also announced that the new Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) has been registered.

This is the second deregistration for the Dayak-based party, the first was on Dec 5 last year. It is also likely to be the final nail in PBDS' coffin.

PRS was mooted last year to be an alternative political vehicle for the Dr James Masing camp.

According to Azmi, the decision to deregister PBDS was made after the Barisan Nasional (BN) component party failed to comply with the conditional approval given by the home minister on March 9 after it appealed against its deregistration last December. The party was reinstated on March 10 this year.

"They appealed against the Dec 5 deregistration and was given a conditional approval to reconvene the triennial delegates conference to be attended by all registered delegates but till today they failed to hold the meeting.

"I've signed the deregistration papers of PBDS following its failure to fulfil the condition set by the home minister. Effective today, PBDS has been deregistered as a society. With the deregistration, the party does not exist anymore," he was quoted as saying by Bernama .

Protracted leadership struggle

The party has been embroiled in a protracted leadership struggle since 2000 with one camp led by party president Daniel Tajem and the other by its former information chief and Sarawak Land Development Minister Dr James Masing.

Contacted in Kuching today, Tajem declined to comment saying that "before I say anything, I must see the letter (of deregistration) first and the grounds why the party was deregistered".

Masing told malaysiakini when contacted that all the nine elected representatives aligned with him will join PRS which will also apply to join the BN.

After the March general election, two of the party's MPs who won were brought into the federal cabinet as deputy ministers.

Joseph Salang, aligned with the Tajem camp, was appointed deputy foreign minister while Joseph Entulu, with the Masing group, was made deputy minister in the Prime Minister's Department.

Masing group the winner

However, in the Sarawak Cabinet helmed by Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud, only the Masing group is represented. Masing is a full minister while two others, Dublin Unting and Larry Sng, are assistant ministers.

PBDS was formed in 1983 by a breakaway group of the Sarawak National Party (Snap) led by former federal minister Leo Moggie.

Moggie who is now chairperson of Tenaga Nasional Berhad resigned as PBDS president last year and handed over the presidency to his deputy, Tajem. This further aggravated the leadership feud in the party with the Masing group accusing Moggie of giving their rivals an unfair advantage.

Azmi told Bernama that he had informed Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on the deregistration.

He also announced the approval for the setting up of PRS - with Sidi Munan as the president.

Azmi said the status of PBDS' assemblymen and members of parliament remained unchanged.

"Although the party has been deregistered, they remain as elected representatives. Whether they want to join the new party or other parties, it's up to them," he said.

Replying to a question, Azmi said it was the right of PBDS' members to form a new party following the deregistration of their party.

The Masing faction attempted to register PRS last year but did not pursue it after PBDS was reinstated.

From the way things have been going for Dr James Masing and his group, getting the new party admitted into the BN successfully is only a foregone conclusion.

Caught by surprise

The deregistration announcement caught many, especially in the Tajem camp, by surprise as they had expected any decision would only be made after a BN supreme council meeting.

Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, who chaired last week's BN management committee meeting that discussed the PBDS issue, said the committee's recommendations would be tabled at the next meeting of the BN SC meeting to be chaired by Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

According to most political analysts, it is most likely that the various component parties of BN might not all agree to the management committee's recommendations.

Meanwhile, opposition State Reform Party (Star) president Dr Patau Rubis has said his party is open to anyone from the deregistered party to join.

"We offer them a platform for their political struggle," he added.

He declined to make further comment, saying the deregistration of PBDS was an internal matter of the BN.