LARRY Sng, who defected from PKR to become Perikatan Nasional-friendly independent lawmaker, is not welcomed back to his old party Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS), said its president James Masing.

Masing told The Malaysian Insight Sng was, however, free to join other parties in the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) ruling coalition.

“No. I will not block except if he applies to join PRS,” Masing told The Malaysian Insight.

“If they wish to take Larry Sng, that’s their choice. PRS is not going to be an obstacle to that decision.”

However, there’s a caveat to the PRS decision.

Masing said Sng could not take the Julau seat, which he won in the 2018 general election as an independent, to whichever GPS party he chooses to go to.

“That seat is not negotiable. It belongs to PRS.”

Sng defeated Joseph Salang Gandum, then the four-term incumbent and one of Masing’s right-hand men.

The four parties in GPS are Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP), Progressive Democratic Party and PRS.

As he’s a Chinese, joining the PBB – a preserve of the bumiputera - is already ruled out for the former Sarawak PKR chairman, who dumped the opposition party Sunday and pledged his support for Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

His avenue is therefore only confined to the multiracial SUPP and PDP.

“Sng is free to move anywhere he likes, provided the party concerned is willing to take him.

“Not PRS,” he said and quoted his favourite proverb “You fool me once, shame on you! You fool me twice, shame on me” – a clear reference to the 2006 power struggle in PRS where Sng and his millionaire businessman father, Sng Chee Hua, orchestrated an attempt to snatch the presidency from Masing.

Sng was then PRS secretary-general.

The two-year tussle, which pushed PRS to the brink of deregistration, had two presidents, two supreme councils, two headquarters and even two party elections.

It ended in 2008 when the Registrar of Societies declared Masing the legal president.

Masing was swift with the axe, chopping Sng, his father and all those aligned to him.

The sacking left Sng in the political wilderness for a while.

Masing said if Sng decides to join SUPP, “then he can contest in any DAP constituency”.

With a tinge of sarcasm, Masing said “with his cool charisma, there is no problem in LS (Larry Sng) not winning the fight”.

When asked if he had lost the ruthless side of him in not dealing Sng a career ending blow for the what he did in 2006, Masing said “every party must be given a chance to learn”.

“PRS and PKR were given the chance.”

University of Tasmania’s director of the Asia Institute, James Chin told The Malaysian Insight he was informed by his sources that Sng had made overtures to join one of the GPS parties.

Sng and Tebrau MP Steven Choong left PKR on Sunday and declared their support for Muhyiddin and PN.

Muhyiddin gained the much-needed majority in Dewan Rakyat with the defection of the duo.

Sng gave the lack of funds he needed as an opposition lawmaker to serve the people in his “poor” rural Dayak constituency as the main reason that forced him to leave and be a government-friendly independent. – March 4, 2021.