PRS Senadin members resign from party, blame Masing for loss in May 9 polls

MIRI: Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) members in Senadin are resigning from the party as they have lost confidence in the leadership of Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Masing.

The PRS Senadin branch wants Masing to tender his resignation as president of the party for his ‘mistakes’ in tackling internal issues which resulted in the party losing three of its parliament seats.

Branch chairman and former political secretary to the chief minister, Richard Wil Uban, said the decision was made at a meeting of Senadin branch special committee on May 15 in the PRS service centre at Pujut 7, Miri which was chaired by himself.

“We are resigning from PRS because we have lost confidence in the party leadership, in the person of James Masing,” he said in a statement yesterday.

According to Wil, all PRS members in Senadin believed that loss of the three seats by the party was due to Masing’s vindictive style of leadership.

He claimed that Masing is a leader who decides everything in the party according to his own whims and fancies and would never listen to the voices of the grassroots.

“We suggest that he, as a responsible individual, should admit his mistakes, therefore should also tender his resignation as president of PRS,” Wil stressed.

Wil disclosed that not only PRS members in Senadin had lost confidence in Masing but other members from other divisions throughout the state too, who were still waiting to see the latest development in the party.

“As party members at the grassroots level, we want James Masing to step down and admit his ‘mistakes’ so that the trust of the members for the party will not fade,” he said further.

In the 14th general election, PRS lost three out of the six seats it contested. The lost seats are Julau, Selangau and Lubok Antu while it won Sri Aman, Hulu Rajang and Kanowit.

Meanwhile, a former supreme council member of PRS, Edward Kurik, believes that the sacking of five party members just before GE14 has greatly contributed to the defeat of the party’s three candidates in the May 9 polls.

Prior to the election, Masing sacked several supreme council members, among them party deputy president Datuk Joseph Entulu Belaun, Datuk William Nyalau Badak and Nyempah Sabot, who is said to be a potential candidate for Julau.