Masing (seated, fifth left) and Entulu (seated, fourth left) with other members of PRS supreme council.
KUCHING: The headquarters of Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) in Pending here will soon be relocated to a building at Jalan Wan Alwi, where Yayasan Teras is located, as the Dayak-dominant party needs a bigger space for its staff.
Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Jemut Masing, who is also PRS president, said the decision was made at the party’s supreme council meeting yesterday, adding that the meeting was confined to the usual housekeeping matters.
“We were having the last supreme council meeting for the year and it was on the usual housekeeping and so on. And we are (also) ready, maybe, to move the headquarters to a new premises where the Yayasan Teras is. We will try to talk and negotiate with Yayasan Teras on the rental,” he told The Borneo Post and Utusan Borneo.
“This (present) headquarters office is small, but we would like to thank its owner for allowing us to rent the place.”
PRS has been renting the shoplot at Pending since 2006 – two years after it was registered as a new political party following the demise of Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS).
“We decided to move as the party is getting bigger. For the last two years, our staff number has been getting bigger and therefore, we would need a bigger space,” he stressed.
When pressed further, Masing pointed out that the new premises is not owned by PRS or PBDS, but is now held by ‘the private sector’ after PBDS was deregistered in 2004.
Yayasan Teras — short for People’s Technical Education Foundation of Sarawak — was set up by the Education Bureau of the now-defunct PBDS in 1996.
The government back then allocated RM1 million to the fund to promote technical education among Dayak students.
The April 25, 2016 edition of The Borneo Post quoted Masing, who is the deputy chairman of Yayasan Teras board of trustees, as saying that Yayasan Sarawak had disbursed RM5 million to sponsor Dayak students to pursue technical education since its establishment in 1996. Among those present at the media briefing yesterday was PRS deputy president Datuk Joseph Entulu Belaun.
PRS holds six parliamentary constituencies — Sri Aman, Lubok Antu, Julau, Kanowit, Selangau and Hulu Rajang — and 11 state constituencies — Balai Ringin, Bukit Begunan, Batang Ai, Ngemah, Tamin, Kakus, Pelagus, Baleh, Belaga, Murum and Samalaju — for Barisan Nasional (BN).