Being reaffirmed as the president of Parti Rakyat Sarawak with ROS decision to maintain status quo of PRS and Masing meet up with Badawi recently, Masing still have soft spot for Larry Sng by letting the grassroots of the party to determine the fate of Larry Sng.
Masing does not dismiss Sng outright but giving him a chance by letting the grassroots decide. This is because Masing still need Sng.
However, except for Sng himself, his committee members are not being spared and have been dismiss from the party. As Masing mentioned, Sng is an elected representative and if Sng is out of the party, PRS would lose one seat in the state cabinet. In addition, Sng and his father is a big sponsor to PRS. And the other reason why Masing would like to keep Sng is because Sng have the money.
PRS is one of the mosquito party of Sarawak Barisan Nasional and being small, fund are limited. Moving around their constituencies in the remote corner of Sarawak can be very costly and without money, they cannot move to service their supporters.
For Sng, if he decided to rejoin PRS, he have give Masing his undying support and have to take a backstage stand while Masing have to be very wary of Sng every movement, just in case Sng mounted another mutiny. If Sng decided not to rejoin PRS, that would mean the end of this political career, unless he have a change of mind to join either DAP or PKR.
Extracted from: theborneopost.com/?p=33624 (Apr 06, 2008)
Sng’s PRS fate with grassroots: Masing
By Samuel Aubrey
KUCHING: Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) supreme council has now left it to their grassroots members to decide on the future of Larry Sng in the party.
Party president Dato Sri Dr James Jemut Masing said yesterday that Sng’s expulsion from the party was being put on hold until after he had the decision from the grassroots.
The supreme council, in its meeting yesterday, in fact unanimously rejected Sng as a PRS member but Masing said Sng ought to be given another chance mainly because he was an elected representative.
“We give him another chance by asking the grassroots to give their opinions on whether to sack him or admit him back to the party,” he said at a press conference after the supreme council meeting at the headquarters in Jalan Pending here.
Masing said PRS as a political party did not depend solely on the supreme council because its real strength actually lay in the grassroots.
The grassroots in the 29 PRS divisions will soon meet and their decision will then be conveyed through press statements and letters to the party and the president.
“If I disobey the grassroots, then we will be in big trouble because they will be the ones electing us later on. You know what happens when the grassroots don’t want you. The result of the just-concluded general election is the best example,” he said.
While Sng is given a reprieve, the same cannot be said of the nine PRS leaders including his father (and ex-deputy president Dato Sng Chee Hua), who were sacked from the party during the triennial general assembly in Sibu in Dec 2, 2006.
Apart from Sng, the others expelled by the general assembly – which is PRS highest decision making body – were Sidi Munan, Jimmy Donald, Munan Laja, Ernest Chua, George Lagong, Dr Ong Lark Sai, Athanasius Audie Chua and Josephine Mawat.
Masing said these nine were no longer members of the party after they failed to reply to the show-cause letters issued to them in April last year.
These letters were either delivered by hand or registered mail.
As far as Masing is concerned, there is no chance for these nine to rejoin the party and they have no locus standi in the party because of their sackings.
“They can reapply if they want to. They can try their luck,” he said.
Sng was in fact sacked during the same general assembly but Masing offered him the vice president’s post instead. This was rejected by Sng. Then Masing offered him the post of information chief so that he could be in the supreme council.
Again, this was refused and even ridiculed by Sng.
Masing responded by issuing him a show-cause letter on April 9 last year for bringing disrepute to the party.
“This is the third time I am going to give him a chance but this time I am listening to the grassroots. If the grassroots say take him back, I take him back,” he said, adding that the decision would be taken as soon as all the divisions had responded.
Asked why there seemed to be special attention given to Sng, Masing said: “I have been very kind to Larry because I put him up as an elected representative in the first place. I have been kind to this young man.”
Sng, who is Pelagus assemblyman and an assistant minister, was PRS deputy secretary general until mid 2006.
He was among the six members sacked from the supreme council by Masing, but he and Wilfred Nissom were re-appointed with new designations in the party.
Sng and his group then held their own triennial delegates conference early last year. He was elected president and thenceforth PRS had two presidents and two separate supreme councils.
Masing said although he deemed this a direct challenge and defiance against his leadership and him, he was still giving Sng another chance.
“We give Larry a lot of chances … not out of spite … but to help him. But he’s got to know how to help himself. He’s got to know his position in any organisation,” he said.
“I have been very magnanimous in all circumstances. I have gone all the way to save the young man but he hasn’t reciprocated in the manner that I expected,” he said.
In the same breath, Masing also wondered if Sng would do the same to him if the situation were reversed.
“What do you think he would do to me? Until April 3, Larry still said I was sacked, and that I was partyless,” he said, adding that although Sng had declared his support for him, he had doubts whether his supporters would do likewise.
On Friday Sng reportedly said that he would urge his supporters to support Masing whose presidency was officially confirmed by the Registrar of Societies Datuk Md Alias Kalil.
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