KUCHING: Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) president Dato Sri Dr James Jemut Masing yesterday said the party’s refusal to have Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister’s Office Larry Sng defend the Pelagus state assembly seat was nothing personal.
Dato Sri Dr James Jemut Masing
The Land Development Minister stressed that the decision to get a new candidate for Pelagus was made in the interest of the Barisan Nasional (BN) and nothing more than that.
“We are going to put a new candidate there (Pelagus) because we want to make sure we can deliver the seat to BN and I am very confident that we can — provided that there is no sabotaging,” he said.
Masing said this when commenting on how certain quarters claimed that PRS was being personal and did not take BN’s interest into account when the party completely closed its doors to Sng, who has been partyless since he was sacked from PRS for insubordination in 2007.
“No, we do not sacrifice any of our seats and I am not to give a chance to anyone who will later go after my neck. Definitely I am not going to do that,” he said.
Masing, who told reporters this after attending a cabinet meeting, reiterated that as for Sng, it was up to him where he would like to go provided that other parties were prepared to take him.
“Where he wants to go, whatever party he wants to join that is up to him. It is none of our business,” he said.
Apart from Pelagus, he said, PRS was also confident of winning its other seven seats, including Ngemah, which is currently held by Parti Cinta Malaysia (PCM) state chairman Gabriel Adit Demong.
Adit, who stood in the 2006 election as an Independent, defeated Alexander Vincent from PRS and Richard Lias from the Sarawak National Party (SNAP).
The defeat, according to PRS, was due to sabotage by fellow BN components and Masing warned he would not allow such a thing to repeat itself in the coming election.