Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr. James Jemut Masing (5 March 1949 – 31 October 2021) was a Malaysian politician who served as the Deputy Chief Minister, State Minister of Infrastructure and Ports Development of Sarawak under Chief Ministers Adenan Satem and Abang Abdul Rahman Johari Abang Openg as well as Member of the Sarawak State Legislative Assembly (MLA) for Baleh from May 2016, January 2017 and December 1983 to his death in October 2021 respectively. He was a member of the Parti Bangsa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) and later Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS), a component party of the ruling Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) coalition. He also served as President of PRS from its founding in March 2004 to his death in October 2021. Background Masing born on 5 March 1949 at Baleh, Kapit, Sarawak, was an ethnic Iban and a Christian. Masing had studied and graduated with B.A. in Education in 1975 from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand under the Colombo Plan Scholarship. He also received both his M.A. in 1978 and Ph.D. in Anthropology in 1981 from Australian National University, the first Iban to achieve that. Political career Masing started his political career when he joined and climbed to be the Vice-President of the now defunct Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) before becoming the co-founding and 1st President of the Sarawak Peoples' Party or Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) since 2004 until 2021. Even though he never became a federal Member of Parliament (MP), Masing had served for eight consecutive terms as MLA for Baleh under the two parties from 1983 to 2021. He also rose to be the Deputy Chief Minister of Sarawak from 2016 to his death in 2021. He could have contested and perhaps have defended the Baleh seat for the ninth consecutive time if not because of the deferment of a supposedly earlier 2021 Sarawak state election due to 2021 state of emergencies, arising from the 2020–21 political crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as his untimely death. Controversies Masing's reported political persecution of disabled Dayaks and his admission that he and his deputy sought inducements for Native Customary Lands (NCR) exploitation for plantations in 2012. He had also benefited from lucrative Belian timber concessions, huge state contracts, plantation licences on NCR, a partnership with an international oil company and a prized car dealership licence. The Forest Department's information reveals the timber concessions in the