Crisis-ridden Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) elected representatives who try to scuttle plans for the special delegates conference scheduled on Sept 9 to elect a new party president will face the music if they do so.

The warning came today from PRS deputy president Sng Chee Hua, who has been appointed acting president following the censure of Dr James Masing as president for allegedly supporting the opposition against the party's candidate Larry Sng - who is Sng's son - in the recent state elections.

Sng warned of 'strong action' against any elected representative trying to sabotage the extraordinary delegates conference (EDC).

Observers took this to mean any state assemblyperson or members of parliament aligned to the censured president that the party would not nominate them as candidates in the next general elections or that disciplinary action could be taken against them, including possible dismissal from the party.

Sng told malaysiakini there was already sufficient number of delegates registered with party headquarters from the various divisions for the necessary quorum for the EDC to proceed as scheduled.

There are 29 divisions registered with the Registrar of Societies (ROS) but 23 are only qualified to take part and send delegates as the rest have fewer than 500 members each. Three-fifths of the delegates constitute a quorum.

BN's hands-off policy

The Barisan Nasional has adopted a hands-off policy on the leadership fight in PRS - a member of the ruling coalition - which was precipitated by the sacking of Sng's loyalists in the supreme council by Masing soon after the state elections in what Masing called a pre-emptive move.

Masing had expected Sng to raise complaints against him about election matters and had therefore refused to sanction a supreme council meeting that Sidi Munan, the secretary-general, had called on June 14, less than a month after the state elections.

Sng said the party had informed the ROS in calling for the EDC.

"The ROS is like our advisor," he said, adding that his faction had not been told they should not proceed with the party's extraordinary meeting.

Masing's deputy information Tedwine Ngumbang told malaysiakini that his leader was in the process of preparing a response to Sng's latest statement.

PRS has 11 elected representatives - eight state assemblypersons and three members of parliament, most of whom are backing Masing.

Sng, considered by many as the party financier, is putting up the party's vice-president and Sri Aman MP Jimmy Donald as the candidate to take over as president.

Dayak-based PRS has been temporarily shut out of the federal BN supreme council meetings until it has resolved its internal conflict.