Hate or love him, Taib's a dividing factor

It has been 30 years since Abdul Taib Mahmud was sworn in as Sarawak chief minister, but never before has he had to defend himself so hard.

Starting their attack months ahead, it is no secret now that Taib's alleged corruption, and the seemingly good fortune and business acumen of those around him, have taken centre-stage in the election campaign of his opponents.

"PKR Youth will focus not just on local issues but also on the core issues of corruption and abuse of power," its chief Shamsul Iskandar Md Akin said.

"On June 29, 2010, we had lodged a report with MACC to investigate an estimated Canadian $3 billion involving Taib. Reports have been made to at least 10 divisions in MACC Sarawak."

While PKR's campaign materials, in the form of booklets of several pages, blatantly finger Taib as the bane of Sarawak society, the DAP flyers are more subtle.

Its flyers with the Chinese character for 'greed' are illustrated with fine white hair growing out of the sides - a subtle but effective message to the party's target of mostly Chinese constituencies, where Taib is known as 'Pek Moh' (White Hair).

Subtlety is important in the context of Sarawak, where talking about the all-powerful Taib, albeit in a code name, is still done in a lowered voice and after looking over one's shoulders several times.

If it is not enough that Taib has been forced to put up YouTube videos to clear his name, the other BN leaders too are finding the veteran PBB leader's notorious street-cred a little too much to handle.

'Pek Moh is DAP's No 1 campaigner'

One local SUPP leader, who declined to be named, believes that Pakatan is on target.

"Taib is DAP's number one campaigner. We'd love for him to step down, but everyone knows that PBB and Taib hold the power in Sarawak BN and SUPP can't do much," he told Malaysiakini.

Taib's appearances in Chinese-majority areas, where SUPP is going head-to-head with DAP, he said, would only serve to boost DAP's campaign, which hinges largely on the brewing dissatisfaction among the Chinese over Taib's never-ending term as chief minister.

Malaysiakini understands that Taib has yet to schedule appearances in many of the Chinese-majority areas.

The Chinese make up 31.5 percent of the total 979, 796 total voters in Sarawak.

Chinese constituents in Padungan approached by Malaysiakini expressed unease over the way the Taib government did business, saying they felt left out as only select members of the community were given opportunities.

PKR's See Chee How, who is contesting in Batu Lintang against SUPP's Sih Hua Tong and an Independent, former PKR member Soo Lina, also believes that much of the election campaign boils down to the Taib factor.

"Independents contesting or not is totally irrelevant... the main issue here is Taib, because people are choosing between Pakatan or BN - whether you want Taib or not.

"It's a well known fact that Sih has been political secretary to Taib since after the 2006 state election," See said, hinting that Sih's connection with Taib would be the SUPP man's biggest liability.

Taib a Malay-Melanau hero

But such a strategy may not work too well in roughly 26 Malay-Melanau majority constituencies, said Universiti Malaysia Sarawak political analyst Jeneri Amri.

Jeneri, a Sarawak bumiputera, said that for the Malay-Melanau who make up 27.5 per cent of the voters in the state, it is a sense of pride that the all-powerful leader comes from their community.

"Political literacy is low. Issues of good governance are too abstract and lofty. For many, Taib is a hero, a member of the minority who has managed to lead the majority," he said.

As such, attacking Taib further would alienate those who look up to him - some of whom are also the target voters of PKR and PAS.

Jeneri added that as a minority, the Malay-Melanau community was unlikely to want to give up power, fearing that they would not be protected if power was conceded to someone else.

Observations by Malaysiakini in the PBB stronghold of Satok yesterday confirmed this sentiment, with most of the local people we spoke to saying they fully backed PBB as "it is the party that will protect our rights".

In 2006, BN won about 70 percent of the total Malay-Melanau votes and if Jeneri's observations are accurate, the trend will persist in the April 16 election as well.

And, with seemingly much-loved Malay-Melanau PBB deputy chief Abang Johari Abang Openg touted as the chief minister-in-waiting, the Malay-Melanau community is likely to stick with BN, whether they love Taib or not.