Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) president Dr James Masing was quizzed by senior police officers from Bukit Aman yesterday afternoon for nearly two hours in Kuching following a complaint over the public display of an 'authorised' new party symbol.

State ROS director James Ho confirmed that a Bukit Aman investigation team had questioned Masing who is also a state minister.

PRS secretary-general Sidi Munan, aligned to the faction opposed to Masing's leadership, also confirmed that a senior police officer from Bukit Aman visited PRS headquarters in Green Heights near Kuching International Airport on Tuesday afternoon and took his statement.

Sidi lodged a police report earlier this month against Masing for allegedly displaying publicly the new symbol that had not been approved by the Registrar of Societies.

Sources said the Bukit Aman police officers would also visit Miri where the new symbol was reportedly displayed in public at a dinner gathering organised by the party's Miri division in January this year.

The dinner gathering was attended by party members and supporters as well as several leaders of the Sarawak United People's Party (Supp), including Supp organising secretary and federal minister Peter Chin.

Satisfactory explanation

The unveiling of the new party symbol by the Masing faction was widely reported in local newspapers and carried over radio and TV, with pictures showing Masing and his faction leaders displaying their new design to the dinner crowd.

However, Masing denied to the police that he had publicly displayed the new symbol, according to sources.

A Masing faction leader told malaysiakini: "We believe we have given a satisfactory explanation to the police."

Sources said the Bukit Aman team, after taking all statements, would report to their superiors who in turn would refer the matter to the Ministry of Home Affairs to establish where there is a prima facie case to charge Masing and anyone else involved or not.

Masing was not available for comment.

Meanwhile, it is learnt that action is to be taken any time soon to take down the signboard at the Pending office which the Masing faction has insisted is their party headquarters, inspite ROS effectively recognising the party headquarters in Green Heights as the rightful one.