Opposition keeping eyes peeled for the ‘silver bullet’

Joceline Tan, The Star

SARAWAK politician Baru Bian had come across Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on numerous occasions in Parliament, but last month was the first time he met the Parti Pribumi president up-close.

The pair were in Sibu for the state Pakatan Harapan convention and Baru was surprised to see that he was almost half a head taller than Muhyiddin.

“He always seemed so big in the news,” said Baru, who is PKR’s Ba’kelalan assemblyman.

Enemies have become friends and Baru found the former deputy prime minister easy to talk with.

Muhyiddin is no longer looked upon as a racist for declaring that he is Malay first and Malaysian second, and Pakatan politicians in Sarawak warmed to his message of bringing down Barisan Nasional.

The top women leaders of DAP and PKR made him pose with them for a special photograph.

DAP’s assemblywoman for Pending Violet Yong posted it on Facebook with the caption: “Moment with Tan Sri Dato’ Haji Muhyiddin Yassin (who is) no longer with BN.”

The 14th General Election (GE14) in Sarawak will only involve parliamentary contests. Sarawak has 31 parliamentary seats, the most in the country.

The then Pakatan Rakyat won six of those seats. It was their best ever performance, but the moment seems to have passed because there are very few voices among them predicting that they will be able to win more seats this time around.

Political commentator Dr Jeniri Amir said the best scenario for Pakatan is to keep what they have.

But Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg cannot afford that outcome. He needs to improve on Barisan Nasional’s seat count in order to cement his position at the top, otherwise he will start to feel the undercurrents.

“Ending up with a status quo will not be an issue. If he wins better, it will be a morale booster. However, he cannot afford to do worse. But I can confidently say that PBB (the leading party in the state Barisan) will make a clean sweep of the seats they contest,” said Dr Jeniri.

The thing is, politics no longer excites people in Kuching the way it did several years ago. Dogs and rabies seem to be a hotter issue than politics around Kuching following the deaths of several people bitten by infected dogs.

The chief reason is that Tun Abdul Taib Mahmud, the lightning rod for many urban Sarawakians, is no longer in power.

He probably still has some degree of influence, but he is good at keeping up appearances. Sarawakians only get a glimpse of his personal life on the Instagram account of his glamorous wife Toh Puan Ragad Kurdi Taib.

Claims that Ragad and her two sons from her previous marriage had been granted bumiputra status caused hardly a ripple, although state DAP chief Chong Chieng Jen immediately called a press conference to question why the spouses of other Sarawakians were not given the same fast-track treatment.

A picture of what appears to be a government gazette classifying Ragad and her son as belonging to the Melanau community had gone viral over the last few days.

Barisan had won the state election two years ago with a landslide victory. Most of the hot button issues were neutralised by the late Tan Sri Adenan Satem, resulting in the Opposition floundering like a ship without an anchor during the state election campaign.

As Baru put it: “Adenan hijacked all our issues and repackaged it as Sarawak for Sarawakians. Suddenly, parties that were not from Sarawak became victims.”

There is also a rather strange situation where both the ruling coalition and the Opposition have been championing the same issue ahead of GE14.

The state government has taken the lead in moving towards greater state rights via the Malaysia Agree­ment 1963 (MA63) issue. The state Pakatan is promising the same thing in its New Deal, New Hope declaration. It is like two supermarkets selling the same goods.

According to SUPP politician Robert Lau, the MA63 issue is a big thing, especially among the urban and educated class who feel that they have been shortchanged by the Federal Government.

“I know people are saying, why now? We have been married for more than 50 years, the kids are all grown up, I provided you a house and a car. Well, the wife is more aware of her rights now, she goes to Kuala Lumpur and you have so many nice things, all financed by our oil and gas. She is demanding fairer treatment, that’s why,” said Lau.

Lau said the state Barisan’s target in GE14 is to recover at least three seats that fell to the opposition in 2013 – Sarikei, Sibu and Miri, which Pakatan won by majorities of between 505 and 2,841 votes.

Sibu seems ripe for the picking. During the state election, the Barisan votes in the three state seats located within the Sibu parliamentary area exceeded that of the Opposition by over 5,000 votes.

But, said Baru, a parliamentary race is quite different and it depends on how both sides present their story to the voters.

Baru is a household name in the state. The son of a pastor, he grew up in the highlands of Lawas where, to get home from his boarding school, he had to trek through the jungle for three days and two nights.

He studied law in Australia and returned at a time when native rights were being trampled by logging companies backed by powerful politicians. He is a pioneer in taking Native Customary Rights land cases to court and later took his causes into politics.

Despite his legal fame, he has often been described as a poor politician in the sense that he lacks the instinct to exploit issues in the name of politics. As such, it was quite a surprise to hear him argue rather passionately in favour of Pakatan’s prime minister candidate, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“They say he is recycled. What’s important is that his track record is there, he can unite the Opposi­tion and he is the best option. He has apologised and that means a lot,” he said.

He said Pakatan should bring Dr Mahathir to campaign in the rural areas of Sarawak.

From the corner of my eye I could see a stunned look coming over the face of my colleague Sharon Ling. She attends the same Borneo Evangelical Mission church as Baru and belongs to that progressive generation of youngish people, but for a moment, she looked like she could not believe what she was hearing.

Baru is a devout Christian and when asked whether Dr Mahathir’s past deeds conflicted with his moral compass, he said: “There are no saints in politics. In the Scriptures, God is sovereign and he works in mysterious ways. It means God can use any person, even a non-believer to redeem the nation.”

Hmmm, there might be a political animal in Baru after all.

But Dr Jeniri said: “It is a blunder to make Mahathir their prime minister candidate. They will regret it.”

GE14 is just months away and there has been a dearth of issues that can make voters angry.

In these parts, it takes a truly local issue to fire up the sentiments. Besides, how do you criticise a state that many in the peninsula admire for its racial and religious harmony?

But Abang Johari has one major headache. Like Adenan, he has been unable to find a solution to the long-running rivalry between Barisan’s partner SUPP and its splinter party UPP. The falling-out between the two Chinese-dominated parties led to sabotage on the ground and benefited DAP during the state election.

No one seems to have an answer to the problem.

The silver lining, said a former Kuching journalist, is that there has been a bit of a resurgence in SUPP under its president Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian. The former cardiologist has neither looks nor oratory skills but he has brains, sincerity and energy to deliver the services and amenities that people want.

He is a welcome break from the old era of tycoon politics and his party manifesto during the state polls talked about a clean government, while the candidates made anti-corruption pledges with MACC.

There is also another potential issue looming on the horizon. Taib’s youngest daughter Datuk Hanifah Taib is on the list of potential candidates to contest the Mukah seat, where her father’s former state seat is located.

Taib might be seen as some sort of monster among the urban Chinese but he is beloved in the interior, especially the Iban longhouses.

The general opinion is that Hanifah, who is the spitting image of her late mother, will win hands down, but Mukah is PBB territory and even a banana tree wearing a Barisan flag can win there.

Hanifah, 44, is actually the most down-to-earth of Taib’s four children and she is now the chairman of Perkim, which was one of her father’s pet causes. She goes around dressed like an ordinary housewife – no glittering jewels, expensive handbag or fancy hairdo.

But the concern of some in the state Barisan is that it could provide the special ammunition the Opposi­tion is looking for. Her brother’s sensational divorce case had raked up old gossip about the family’s fortune and everywhere one goes, there are reminders of the family’s astounding wealth and connections, from land to buildings and ongoing construction.

Her candidacy would be portrayed as the Taib family trying to maintain a foothold in the government.

Taib has settled down so well as the Governor, but it is time for modern Sarawak to move on under Abang Johari.