Work effectively like the PBDS days, Masing tells PRS assemblymen

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Masing (seated centre) speaks to the media after chairing PRS Supereme Council meeting.

KUCHING: All 11 Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) assemblymen have been told to work effectively as the opposition, similar to how its predecessor Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) did from 1987 to 1994.

PRS president Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Masing said the party’s assemblymen could no longer rest on their laurels like in the days when Barisan Nasional (BN) was the ruling federal government.

“I told them (assemblymen) to work hard while going to the ground, and do what needs to be done.

“The instruction has been given and we will work along that line. We do not have federal facilities now, so we have to work the way we worked when we were in the opposition,” he told a press conference yesterday after chairing the party’s supreme council meeting.

Masing, who is Baleh assemblyman, also informed that despite the outcome of the recent 14th general election, new members are still joining the party as evidenced by the approval of 1,120 membership applications yesterday.

He nonetheless expressed concern over misperception in social media, especially regarding news of members resigning en bloc from its Senadin division in Miri.

PRS Women chief Datuk Seri Doris Sophia Brodie, who is also Women chief of PRS Senadin branch, said it was not true that 1,000 members had left the division.

She said the claim made by an internet news portal that former political secretary to the chief minister Richard Wil Uban and some 1,000 PRS Senadin members quit the party on May 15 following a special meeting, was not true.

“To say 1,000 members from Senadin had quit the party is a blatant lie. There are 1,174 members in Senadin, including 63 new ones approved today. As women chief of Senadin, I can tell there are 514 women members and the other 660 are in the main body.

“Figures used by Richard Will could probably be picked up from somewhere. Now that he is no longer in the party, I wish him the best of luck,” she said.