Godfather Taib Mahmud and his rule may be painful to Sarawak's opposition parties, but when it comes to the crunch, the people would choose him over Umno anytime.
When opposition party DAP wrested the Sibu seat from Barisan Nasional last May, FMT opinioned that Sibu had voted for ‘Integrity’, ‘Dignity’ and ‘Truth.’
Going into the 10th Sarawak polls, the opposition groups are hoping that Sarawakians will turn their backs on Chief Minister Taib Mahmud and his BN allies for those very same reasons.
The seemingly united Sarawak Pakatan Rakyat coalition of DAP, PAS, PKR and Sarawak National Party (Snap) will flog the Chinese community’s pride and joy, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.
They will flag his ‘integrity’ and his undisputable success in Penang.
Along with him will come party stalwarts and a legion of vocal headline-making national opposition leaders to awe Sarawak with their humility and street politics.
In the bag for Sarawak DAP are reportedly at least 12 seats, an unprecedented number for a party that won six seats in 2006
All this only if Taib and company do not bar Lim and group from entering the state.
Already word is out that several key opposition leaders won’t make it pass the tarmac at Sarawak airport the moment the Election Commission announces the nomination and polling dates.
The State Legislative Assembly will be dissolved on Monday, according to Taib, paving the way for Sarawak’s 10th election.
In the 2006 polls, BN won 62 of the 71 seats contested.
Dignity and truth
Meanwhile the opposition will stoke the natives’ sense of ‘maruah’ or dignity and guarantee the return of the native customary rights and land, surreptiously taken away by Taib’s policy of development dating back to the 1990s, should they be re-elected.
On the opposition’s factsheet is an endless list of abuse and the massive rape of the rainforests by Taib’s regime which have left natives landless, poor and fending off armed thugs hired by encroaching loggers and plantations.
And then there is the ‘truth’ and the reality of Sarawak life beyond the Kuching, Miri and Bintulu borders where hundreds and thousands of natives live in squalid longhouses with no treated water, electricity or roads despite 40 years of voting BN into power.
Heading into the 2011 state election, the opposition has a smorgasboard of issues, among others, Taib’s immense wealth and business monopoly.
Also to be flogged are issues involving illegal logging, land grabs, poverty, carbotage policy, prices of fuel and basic necessities.
To cap this list, Taib and BN will also have to explain the federal government’s latest blunder involving the bible to the state’s almost 50% Christian population.
Taib himself will receive the brunt of the opposition’s verbosity.
On the cards are demands for him to explain how he managed to amass an unimaginable amount of wealth locally and abroad on his salary as Chief Minister and two other ministerial portfolios, all of which would give him an estimated RM50,000 a month.
Swiss based Bruno Manser Funds have identified 49 Taib-linked companies in eight countries worth ‘billions in US dollars’ and are calling on these countries to freeze his assets there.
Amongst them are 13 companies in Malaysia. In Sarawak the stench of nepotism and cronyism is far reaching. Cahaya Mata Sarawak (CMS) is owned by Taib’s family.
CMS and its related companies hold monopoly over billions of ringgit worth of project. The controversial 12 proposed dams and aluminium smelter plant also bears Taib’s hand.
On Friday, Transparency International Malaysia called on the general public to turn whistleblowers so as to pin Taib on corruption charges.
Confident Taib
The fact is Taib, the once poor Melanau boy who joined politics in the 70s, is now a billionaire with “more money than I can ever spend.”
Taib had actually said this during a visit to a longhouse in Sarawak.
Leading Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), the spine of the Sarawak BN coalition, into polls, Taib will aim to maintain the party’s 35 seats in the 71-seat assembly.
But former PRS information chief Tedewin Ngumbang, who has described Taib as a ‘bully’ who ‘insults’ Dayak, could put a spoke in Taib’s plan.
Ngumbang, who is rumoured to be a proxy, is aiming to field several influential individuals to contest in six PBB seats.
Ngumbang himself is out to slay deputy Chief Minister Alfred Jabu Numpang in the Layar constituencies.
Jabu has held the seat for 36 years and according to Ngumbang, little progress has reached the longhouses in Jabu’s contituency.
Ngumbang aside, PAS too is eyeing four to five seats in PBB’s Malay areas.
Nonetheless Taib is confident that his men will retain their seats.
Unfortunately the same can’t be said for BN ally Sarawak United Peoples’ party (SUPP).
Political greenhorn
In 2006 election SUPP lost an unprecedented eight of its 19 seats to opposition.
It lost six seats to DAP, one to PKR and one to Snap.
An emboldened DAP has consistently declared that SUPP, which has lost its place with the Chinese in Sarawak, will lose much more!
Currently SUPP is riding on PBB’s coat-tails and Taib’s magnanimity.
SUPP president George Chan’s daughter is married to Taib’s son Sulaiman Rahman, the young Kota Samarahan parliamentarian who went MIA in December 2009 after resigning from his post as deputy tourism minister.
Taib’s excuse was that Sulaiman was still grieving for his late mother, Laila who died in April the same year.
But the truth as revealed by PBB insiders is that Taib’s son was ‘spoilt’ and had ‘no stomach’ for his father’s politics.
Taib had hoped to groom Sulaiman to eventually succeed him and keep the political dynasty in the family.
Taib himself is the nephew of former chief minister Abdul Rahman Ya’kub.
Last week, the Sadong Jaya PBB division called for Taib to field his eldest son Mahmud Abu Bekir – who is embroiled in RM400 million divorce settlement – in the coming polls.
A political greenhorn much like Sulaiman, Abu Bekir however has shown hesitance. But a PBB insider had said that if push came to shove Abu Bekir will heed his father’s request.
Brownie points
Meanwhile Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) and Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP), will have to content with Snap and PKR who are eyeing all Dayak majority areas.
The toughest fights are expected to be in many of the Dayak and Chinese majority constituencies.
Taib is said to have made known to SUPP that he is not dependent on them and that PBB together with PRS and SPDP will ensure that BN retains a two-third majority is the State Legislative Assembly.
Both PRS and SPDP go into the upcoming state polls with eight seats each. In the 2006 polls, they each lost one seat.
A rejuvenated Snap meanwhile has declared that it will contest in 40 seats, including 28 Dayak seats.
It is aiming to tout its pedigree as the party that gave Sarawak her first Chief Minister in Stephen Kalong Ningkan, an Iban.
Pundits say that this fact alone, together with former diplomat- chief minister Daniel Tajem at the frontline, will earn Snap many brownie points with the older Dayaks.
Already Snap has announced 16 of its candidates and the constituencies it is eyeing.
PKR, a peninsular based party, on the other hand wants to contest in 52 seats, a ‘feat’ many have described as “ridiculous” because it would mean there will be no straight fights in the Dayak constituencies.
“It’s a waste of funds and resources… they should focus on specific seats and go all out to win them in straight fights.
“Already the party is heading into the campaign with their own baggage ..how are you going to talk about Taib and BN when you have so much dirt in your own backyard?,” asked a party sympathiser from Kuching.
Godfather Taib
Nonetheless, PKR is poised to win about four seats in the coming polls.
All things considered, it is unlikely that a ‘united’ Pakatan coalition, predicted to win some 22 seats, will be able to usurp Taib from his throne.
Ironically enough it’s because Sarawakians in general still feel safe with Taib.
Their bigger fear is of Umno stepping in. They are also uncertain about PKR and its leadership.
To the locals across the board Taib is the only one who can stand up to a pushy Umno, who is ready to steamroll into Sarawak given a whiff of an opportunity.
At the recent BN convention in Kuching on March 5, a PBB woman leader candidly said ‘better Taib than Umno.’
It puts Sarawak politics into absolute perspective.
In land-locked Sarawak when it comes to the crunch, Taib is still ‘adulated’ and is seen as a ‘godfather’ and Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak knows this well.
It perhaps also explains Najib’s reticence over forcing Taib’s resignation.
At the launch of a people’s programme in Kota Samarahan yesterday, Najib said Taib should not be pressured to quit.
He said Taib would do so when the time was right. He would pass the baton to his successor, whom he would groom to “deliver his dreams”.
So yes, the opposition will have their day at the polls and yes they will win their bucketful of seats but Taib’s BN coalition will still retain control over the state, one way or the other.
As for parliamentary polls, now that’s a different matter.
When opposition party DAP wrested the Sibu seat from Barisan Nasional last May, FMT opinioned that Sibu had voted for ‘Integrity’, ‘Dignity’ and ‘Truth.’Going into the 10th Sarawak polls, the opposition groups are hoping that Sarawakians will turn their backs on Chief Minister Taib Mahmud and his BN allies for those very same reasons.
The seemingly united Sarawak Pakatan Rakyat coalition of DAP, PAS, PKR and Sarawak National Party (Snap) will flog the Chinese community’s pride and joy, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.
They will flag his ‘integrity’ and his undisputable success in Penang.
Along with him will come party stalwarts and a legion of vocal headline-making national opposition leaders to awe Sarawak with their humility and street politics.
In the bag for Sarawak DAP are reportedly at least 12 seats, an unprecedented number for a party that won six seats in 2006
All this only if Taib and company do not bar Lim and group from entering the state.
Already word is out that several key opposition leaders won’t make it pass the tarmac at Sarawak airport the moment the Election Commission announces the nomination and polling dates.
The State Legislative Assembly will be dissolved on Monday, according to Taib, paving the way for Sarawak’s 10th election.
In the 2006 polls, BN won 62 of the 71 seats contested.
Dignity and truth
Meanwhile the opposition will stoke the natives’ sense of ‘maruah’ or dignity and guarantee the return of the native customary rights and land, surreptiously taken away by Taib’s policy of development dating back to the 1990s, should they be re-elected.
On the opposition’s factsheet is an endless list of abuse and the massive rape of the rainforests by Taib’s regime which have left natives landless, poor and fending off armed thugs hired by encroaching loggers and plantations.
And then there is the ‘truth’ and the reality of Sarawak life beyond the Kuching, Miri and Bintulu borders where hundreds and thousands of natives live in squalid longhouses with no treated water, electricity or roads despite 40 years of voting BN into power.
Heading into the 2011 state election, the opposition has a smorgasboard of issues, among others, Taib’s immense wealth and business monopoly.
Also to be flogged are issues involving illegal logging, land grabs, poverty, carbotage policy, prices of fuel and basic necessities.
To cap this list, Taib and BN will also have to explain the federal government’s latest blunder involving the bible to the state’s almost 50% Christian population.
Taib himself will receive the brunt of the opposition’s verbosity.
On the cards are demands for him to explain how he managed to amass an unimaginable amount of wealth locally and abroad on his salary as Chief Minister and two other ministerial portfolios, all of which would give him an estimated RM50,000 a month.
Swiss based Bruno Manser Funds have identified 49 Taib-linked companies in eight countries worth ‘billions in US dollars’ and are calling on these countries to freeze his assets there.
Amongst them are 13 companies in Malaysia. In Sarawak the stench of nepotism and cronyism is far reaching. Cahaya Mata Sarawak (CMS) is owned by Taib’s family.
CMS and its related companies hold monopoly over billions of ringgit worth of project. The controversial 12 proposed dams and aluminium smelter plant also bears Taib’s hand.
On Friday, Transparency International Malaysia called on the general public to turn whistleblowers so as to pin Taib on corruption charges.
Confident Taib
The fact is Taib, the once poor Melanau boy who joined politics in the 70s, is now a billionaire with “more money than I can ever spend.”
Taib had actually said this during a visit to a longhouse in Sarawak.
Leading Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), the spine of the Sarawak BN coalition, into polls, Taib will aim to maintain the party’s 35 seats in the 71-seat assembly.
But former PRS information chief Tedewin Ngumbang, who has described Taib as a ‘bully’ who ‘insults’ Dayak, could put a spoke in Taib’s plan.
Ngumbang, who is rumoured to be a proxy, is aiming to field several influential individuals to contest in six PBB seats.
Ngumbang himself is out to slay deputy Chief Minister Alfred Jabu Numpang in the Layar constituencies.
Jabu has held the seat for 36 years and according to Ngumbang, little progress has reached the longhouses in Jabu’s contituency.
Ngumbang aside, PAS too is eyeing four to five seats in PBB’s Malay areas.
Nonetheless Taib is confident that his men will retain their seats.
Unfortunately the same can’t be said for BN ally Sarawak United Peoples’ party (SUPP).
Political greenhorn
In 2006 election SUPP lost an unprecedented eight of its 19 seats to opposition.
It lost six seats to DAP, one to PKR and one to Snap.
An emboldened DAP has consistently declared that SUPP, which has lost its place with the Chinese in Sarawak, will lose much more!
Currently SUPP is riding on PBB’s coat-tails and Taib’s magnanimity.
SUPP president George Chan’s daughter is married to Taib’s son Sulaiman Rahman, the young Kota Samarahan parliamentarian who went MIA in December 2009 after resigning from his post as deputy tourism minister.
Taib’s excuse was that Sulaiman was still grieving for his late mother, Laila who died in April the same year.
But the truth as revealed by PBB insiders is that Taib’s son was ‘spoilt’ and had ‘no stomach’ for his father’s politics.
Taib had hoped to groom Sulaiman to eventually succeed him and keep the political dynasty in the family.
Taib himself is the nephew of former chief minister Abdul Rahman Ya’kub.
Last week, the Sadong Jaya PBB division called for Taib to field his eldest son Mahmud Abu Bekir – who is embroiled in RM400 million divorce settlement – in the coming polls.
A political greenhorn much like Sulaiman, Abu Bekir however has shown hesitance. But a PBB insider had said that if push came to shove Abu Bekir will heed his father’s request.
Brownie points
Meanwhile Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) and Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP), will have to content with Snap and PKR who are eyeing all Dayak majority areas.
The toughest fights are expected to be in many of the Dayak and Chinese majority constituencies.
Taib is said to have made known to SUPP that he is not dependent on them and that PBB together with PRS and SPDP will ensure that BN retains a two-third majority is the State Legislative Assembly.
Both PRS and SPDP go into the upcoming state polls with eight seats each. In the 2006 polls, they each lost one seat.
A rejuvenated Snap meanwhile has declared that it will contest in 40 seats, including 28 Dayak seats.
It is aiming to tout its pedigree as the party that gave Sarawak her first Chief Minister in Stephen Kalong Ningkan, an Iban.
Pundits say that this fact alone, together with former diplomat- chief minister Daniel Tajem at the frontline, will earn Snap many brownie points with the older Dayaks.
Already Snap has announced 16 of its candidates and the constituencies it is eyeing.
PKR, a peninsular based party, on the other hand wants to contest in 52 seats, a ‘feat’ many have described as “ridiculous” because it would mean there will be no straight fights in the Dayak constituencies.
“It’s a waste of funds and resources… they should focus on specific seats and go all out to win them in straight fights.
“Already the party is heading into the campaign with their own baggage ..how are you going to talk about Taib and BN when you have so much dirt in your own backyard?,” asked a party sympathiser from Kuching.
Godfather Taib
Nonetheless, PKR is poised to win about four seats in the coming polls.
All things considered, it is unlikely that a ‘united’ Pakatan coalition, predicted to win some 22 seats, will be able to usurp Taib from his throne.
Ironically enough it’s because Sarawakians in general still feel safe with Taib.
Their bigger fear is of Umno stepping in. They are also uncertain about PKR and its leadership.
To the locals across the board Taib is the only one who can stand up to a pushy Umno, who is ready to steamroll into Sarawak given a whiff of an opportunity.
At the recent BN convention in Kuching on March 5, a PBB woman leader candidly said ‘better Taib than Umno.’
It puts Sarawak politics into absolute perspective.
In land-locked Sarawak when it comes to the crunch, Taib is still ‘adulated’ and is seen as a ‘godfather’ and Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak knows this well.
It perhaps also explains Najib’s reticence over forcing Taib’s resignation.
At the launch of a people’s programme in Kota Samarahan yesterday, Najib said Taib should not be pressured to quit.
He said Taib would do so when the time was right. He would pass the baton to his successor, whom he would groom to “deliver his dreams”.
So yes, the opposition will have their day at the polls and yes they will win their bucketful of seats but Taib’s BN coalition will still retain control over the state, one way or the other.
As for parliamentary polls, now that’s a different matter.
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