Salang reaffirms leadership as PRS celebrates 20th anniversary

KUCHING (Oct 27): Datuk Joseph Salang Gandum has reiterated that he remains the president of Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) until the next party’s Triennial Delegates Conference (TDC) scheduled for next year.

“And I hope during this tenure, I lead and guide you as best I can and as sincere as I give, I hope you take it also sincerely like what I do.

“And for that, I hope those who aspire to lead the party in the future, prepare yourself, groom yourself in the mind in the way that you will be for the part.

“The Arabs have a proverb – let it be strong, but not too strong as to be brittle like glass, but at the same time not to be too soft like a strain cannot stand on itself. So that is the guiding principle that we as a party should have,” he told the audience at the PRS’ 20th anniversary dinner at a leading hotel here last night.

He also expressed his desire for PRS to be a meaningful partner in Gabungan Rakyat Sarawak (GPS) government and the unity federal government.

“Not only as making up the numbers but we want to be part and parcel of the whole movement of the political progress in the country and in the state. So that whatever the others can have, we also can (have) also,” he said.

Salang officially taken over the helm of the party in 2022, succeeding the late Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Jemut Masing, who died of heart complications the previous year.

He reminded those present that as they celebrate the 20th anniversary of PRS, they must also remember the struggles and lessons learnt, particularly the struggles within the party.

“I remember when I first joined the party, there was struggle for the leadership, a struggle for the presidency. Maybe that’s among the lessons that we could learn from. And another one is perhaps the formation of PRS itself as to why it was formed, and that is because of the struggle, of the trouble we had in PBDS (Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak) before.

“So please try and remember all these things, so as we can learn from the experience of what we have gone through, and hopefully we will steer PRS into a greater future,” he said.

He also reminded the leaders of party divisions to trust the top leadership of the party.

“We are known to support whatever is right, but we will not support what is not right and we will always agree to disagree on some principle, but at the same time, we have a stand and that is our stand is to make sure that our rural communities will never be worse off than we have ever been,” he added.

Meanwhile, party secretary general Datuk Dr Malcolm Mussen Lamoh said PRS reaching its 20th year is a significant milestone for the only Dayak-based party in GPS.

“Congratulations and thank you to all pioneering members of PRS for growing the roles and contributions to enable PRS to progress from its infancy stage to adulthood over the last 20 years.

“Here special mention must be accorded to the late Tan Sri Dr James Jemut Masing, who asserted that ‘I don’t want this party to last only my presidency’,” he said, followed by a one-minute silence to honour Masing’s untimely demise three years ago.