Tiong King Sing goes missing.
Bintulu MP Tiong King Sing failed to attend his swearing-in as a deputy minister in the new cabinet at Istana Melawati in Putrajaya today.
No official reason was given for the absence of the five-term MP but The Borneo Post, quoting sources, claimed the president of Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) “had turned down the appointment” as deputy minister in the National Unity Ministry.
The online version of the newspaper said its source did not explain why Tiong rejected the appointment.
Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister James Masing told The Malaysian Insight that the post “was not appropriate” but declined to elaborate.
Tiong’s media officer Rose Sia told The Malaysian Insight she has not seen Tiong all day today and therefore was not aware if there is any truth to the report online that he had rejected the appointment.
“I’m also not sure,” she said, but added she will revert as soon as possible once she gets a “reliable response”.
Former Barisan Nasional prime minister Najib Razak in 2014 appointed Tiong as Malaysia’s special envoy to the Far East, covering Japan, Korea and Taiwan.
The appointment was terminated by the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government in 2018.
PDP has only two MPs, the other being Anyi Ngau of the Baram constituency.
His party PDP is one of four parties in the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) coalition. The other three are Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) and Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP).
The Borneo Post later reported that Tiong has rejected the Deputy National Unity Minister’s post in the new federal cabinet, quoting the party’s secretary-general Datuk Nelson Balang Rining.
Balang said the PDP supreme council had decided during a meeting in Kuala Lumpur yesterday that Tiong, 58, should not accept the post after Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had announced the line-up.
“The post does not befit his position as president of the party. He is very senior in terms of his position in the party and has also served a long time as a member of Parliament,” Balang told The Borneo Post this evening.
Asked if PDP will recommend Baram MP Anyi Ngau as Tiong’s replacement, Balang said: “I wouldn’t use the word replacement, but his name was mentioned during the meeting.”