It was supposed to set the tone for further glad tidings for the crisis-ridden Parti Rakyat Sarawak but it was not to be.

The faction, led by embattled president Dr James Masing, failed to show up at the initial reconciliation talks scheduled in Kota Kinabalu yesterday afternoon.

Reason: They were unhappy at what they called the series of publicity stunts pulled by their rival faction led by deputy president Sng Chee Hua.

The publicity stunts, according to PRS vice-president Dublin Unting who was to lead the Masing faction at the talks, included the news leaked to the media about the impending talks and a police report lodged against Masing for publicly unveiling a new PRS logo that has not been approved by the party and the Registrar of Societies.

Dublin accused the rival faction of not being sincere in wanting reconciliation.

But the Sng faction said it had nothing to do with the release of news about the impeding talk and at any rate saw nothing wrong about the media speculating on the date, time and place of such talks as it had generated a lot of public interest.

Making excuses

Besides, the lodging of the police report against Masing was a separate issue and it was required by the authorities following the complaint made by the Sng faction after Masing publicly displayed the 'new' PRS logo as it is against the Societies Act to do so when no prior approval has been given by the ROS.

It is also learnt that the Masing faction was also 'disturbed' by the huge attendance at the rival faction's dinner gathering organised by the three PRS factions in Miri on the eve of the scheduled talks in Kota Kinabalu.

A four-member team led by PRS deputy information chief Larry Sng (left) led for KK the following day to attend the talks scheduled at the Sutera Harbour Resort, The other members were Sri Aman MP Jimmy Donald and two other supreme council members lawyer David Goh and Audie Chua.

A member of the group told malaysiakini the Masing faction was merely making excuses as they had no intention in the first place to meet and talk about reconciliation.

"Even though we know how we ourselves feel about the whole thing, nevertheless we travelled to KK and waited for them at the appointed place on Friday," he said, adding however they were not surprised at the no-show of their rivals.

Meanwhile, Dublin said that for the talks to take place it should be away from the glare of publicity.