PARTI Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) president James Masing has demanded an apology from English daily The Borneo Post and its news portal over its report implying he had suggested the state’s reserves of RM31 billion be used in its entirety before the next state election.

“Its libellous,” Masing said through his legal counsel, Allan Lao, this afternoon.

The letter of demand was served on both the paper’s publisher, Borneo Post Sdn Bhd, and the portal’s publisher, Borneo Post Online Sdn Bhd, on Tuesday.

Both publishers have been given seven days to offer an apology in print and online, failing which Masing said he “has no choice but to consider taking further legal action”.

Lao said there has been no response from the daily or its online component.

The row between Masing, who is also deputy chief minister, and the paper stemmed from a report titled, “Masing suggests Sarawak’s reserves of RM31 billion be used before the next state election”.

He said the heading was interpreted by many of its readers as him calling on the state government to deplete the reserves in a bid to prevent it from being used by the opposition should they win the 2021 state election.

Masing, in a statement released at a media conference chaired by his deputy, Joseph Salang, said he had been “misquoted” and that his speech at the PRS dinner on June 17 in Kuching was “taken out of context”.

“I have never suggested to ‘use up all’ (of the) state’s reserve before the next election,” he said.

The words “use up all” were blurbed in the online version of the report, which Masing said was the root cause of the furore that has ensued.

He said he had even been criticised and censured by his cabinet colleagues.

Masing said the words “use up all” was pinned to the publisher’s Facebook page to “ensure maximum exposure to its Facebook visitors”.

Bandar Kuching MP Kelvin Yii said Masing’s suggestion “proved his ignorance of the democratic system and (was) an insult to the role of a government in managing the country’s resources for the good of the people”, while Yii’s Pakatan Harapan colleague, PKR Sarawak chairman Baru Bian, said the suggestion only goes to show that Masing was “a politician first and the DCM second” when it should be the other way around.

Second Finance Minister Wong Soon Koh had said the Sarawak government was always mindful in spending its reserves as it has to ensure that it is utilised wisely and purposefully.

The Borneo Post had on June 20 said it stood by its story and ran an editorial asking its readers if it had been misquoted.

The paper embedded what it claimed was an audio recording of part of Masing’s address at the dinner in its online report.

The paper stated in the editorial that it was “to let discerning readers have their say”.

An unverified posting on social media, however, said the paper was being used by a company to discredit Masing for refusing to award it a RM5 billion contract involving the state’s coastal road project.

Masing, who is also the state’s infrastructure development and transportation minister, had refused to confirm or deny the claim but did say “there are interested parties” who wanted to be awarded the project without going through the tender process.

“They want it as a directly negotiated turnkey project.”

Masing said the company had eyed the projected since it was mooted by his predecessor. – June 28, 2018.