Azmin, get a grip - Anthony Ibong

Azmin should be mindful that SNAP had been established in Sarawak far longer than PKR, and in fact longer than the Malaysian federation itself. SNAP provided the first chief minister of the state. He should give it the due respect that it deserves as the party that is the traditional Dayak-based political organisation of Sarawak.

by Anthony anak Ibong via e-mail

---

The PKR deputy president, Azmin Ali's remarks, reported on March 5th, directed to the Sarawak National Party (SNAP) are highly deplorable.

Who does Azmin think he is, to tell, to warn and to set conditions to SNAP? He appears to be intent on bullying SNAP.

On December 12 2010, he gave a fiery speech in Bintulu promising to give full autonomy to Sarawak were Pakatan Rakyat (PR) to gain power at the federal level. I am beginning to doubt if what he said that day Sarawak autonomy can be believed at all given his attitude to SNAP which is a pure Sarawakian party, unlike PKR.

Azmin should be mindful that SNAP had been established in Sarawak far longer than PKR, and in fact longer than the Malaysian federation itself. SNAP provided the first chief minister of the state. He should give it the due respect that it deserves as the party that is the traditional Dayak-based political organisation of Sarawak.

With the unresolved issues arising from the PKR party elections and high number defections of its elected representatives, Azmin should bear in mind that he is from the party that is commonly agreed to be the weakest link in the PR coalition. He ought to be more humble and circumspect before deciding to get on the high horse and start dictating what other political parties should or should not be doing and trying to impose terms.

PKR and PR should be thankful that SNAP is willing to be an ally in the impending state elections. It will be unwise for Azmin or anyone else for that matter to treat SNAP as a junior partner in this alliance.

Even Umno has been sensitive to local Sarawak sentiments and refrained from setting itself up in the state. For PKR to come in and start ordering and bossing SNAP around, that is something which will not go down well with the Sarawak electorate and may adversely impact PR's performance in the state elections. That is why I found Azmin's remarks so short-sighted and deplorable.

Apart from power-abuse and high level breaches of public trust, the other major and apparently intractable issues in the state are Dayak-based, such as the question of native customary rights over land. Between PKR and SNAP, surely the latter as a Sarawak-based organisation, is better placed to represent the people of the state in any sincere effort to resolve those issues.

It is best that the PR parties bear in mind that SNAP contested no fewer than 28 seats in the last state elections. To offer it just 3 seats to contest this time around is nothing but an insult to the aspirations of the people of Sarawak. All things considered, there is no compelling reason why SNAP should tie its fortune to PR if the PKR does not budge in the seat-allocations discussions.

As for Azmin, if he was not being hypocritical in his talk about Sarawak autonomy, he should be more receptive to and accepting of SNAP's desire to contest in the number of seats it feels it deserved and stop trying to boss the Sarawak party around.



ANTHONY ANAK IBONG

Pilihanraya Sarawak: PKR tidak matang - Aspan Alias

Kenyataan Azmin yang memberi amaran kepada SNAP supaya tunduk kepada apa yang ditetapkan oleh PKR itu adalah satu bahasa politik yang tidak matang jika dilakukan applikasinya di Sarawak. Sudahkah PKR berunding secara khusus dengan DAP dan anggota PR yang lain sebelum meluahkan perasaan yang agak tidak cerdik itu?

oleh Aspan Alias

---

Pilihanraya Sarawak merupakan pilihanraya yang akan menjadi isu tumpuan bagi banyak pihak baik di Sarawak mahu pun di Semenanjung kerana ianya kait mengait di antara satu dengan lain yang akan menentukan nasib kedua-dua belah pihak, BN dan PR.

Pakatan Rakyat, khususnya PKR sedang menghadapi sedikit kekeliruan dengan SNAP dan belum lagi berjumpa dengan formula terbaik untuk berkerjasama dan mengadakan kesepakatan untuk menghadapi BN yang akan bermatian-matian untuk mempertahankan kekuasaan di Sarawak.

Pembangkang di Sarawak akan menghadapi kerugian yang amat besar jika tidak berjaya bergerak seiringan kerana BN Sarawak adalah di dalam keadaan yang paling lemah jika dibandingkan dengan keadaan pada masa-masa yang lalu.

Dalam PR di Sarawak hanya DAP sahaja yang tidak berhadapan kerana parti itu hanya menumpukan kepada 20 kerusi DUN di kawasan bandar dan tidak bercita-cita besar seperti PKR yang mahukan 52 kerusi dari 71 kerusi di dalam DUN Sarawak. Azmin Ali, Timbalan Presiden PKR nampaknya begitu keras mahukan kerusi yang begitu banyak tanpa memikirkan perasaan pengundi tempatan yang jauh berbeza dari pemikiran pengundi di Semenanjung.

Bagi setengah pendapat jika PKR sensitive kepada keadaan tempatan, parti itu sepatutnya memberikan kelebihan kepada SNAP kerana SNAP merupakan parti yang begitu lama wujud di Sarawak dan pernah mendapat tempat di hati rakyat Sarawak yang mewakili Iban dan Dayak yang merupakan pengundi yang ‘substantial’ di bumi kenyalang itu. SNAP telah terkeluar dari BN di sebabkan pergolakan politik Sarawak hampir dua dekad dahulu.

Apa yang boleh dilakukan di Semenanjung tidak semestinya boleh dilakukan di Sarawak. UMNO tidak dapat menjejakan kaki di Sarawak kerana rakyat Sarawak tidak bersetuju dengan kehadiran UMNO, walaupun UMNO merupakan tunjang kepada BN. Tidak ganjil rasanya jika PKR hanya mengambil kerusi dengan jumlah yang agak munasabah bagi rakyat Sarawak.

Kenyataan Azmin yang memberi amaran kepada SNAP supaya tunduk kepada apa yang ditetapkan oleh PKR itu adalah satu bahasa politik yang tidak matang jika dilakukan applikasinya di Sarawak. Sudahkah PKR berunding secara khusus dengan DAP dan anggota PR yang lain sebelum meluahkan perasaan yang agak tidak cerdik itu?

Bagi Sarawak kaedah yang paling baik untuk menghadapi BN ialah dengan memberikan kelebihan kepada parti-parti tempatan yang lebih lama dan memahami keadaan di negeri itu, terutamanya SNAP. Dalam pada itu PKR mesti faham bahawa SNAP juga sedang menjalini hubungan dengan MCLM yang juga merupakan satu kumpulan yang inginkan representasi di Sarawak di dalam pilihanraya yang akan datang ini.

Sesungguhnya usia SNAP lebih lama dari usia PKR dan memebrikan kelebihan kepada parti-parti tempatan merupakan satu kompromi yang berkesan untuk menghadapi BN yang sangat besar kekuasaan kewangan dan kemudahan yang lain.

Jika ada kompromi yang baik dan mempunyai matlamat yang satu maka tumpuan kepada 30 kerusi Dayak dan Iban yang pernah mewakili mereka di dalam Dewan Undangan Negeri Sarawak dan pernah menjadi komponen yang besar di dalam BN Sarawak dan di wakili di dalam kabinet Sarawak. Disinilah lebihnya UMNO kerana sanggup berkorban dengan rakan-rakan komponen dan bersetuju tidak diwakili didalam legislative persekutuan dan negeri dari Sarawak.

Pemimpin PKR sepatutnya menumpukan usaha memberikan sokongan kepada komponennya di Sarawak jika SNAP bersetuju untuk menjadi komponen kepada PR. Jika titik pertemuan tidak tercapai maka akan ada perentapan di antara SNAP dengan PKR di kawasan-kawasan Iban dan Dayak yang akan memberikan kemenangan mudah kepada BN di dalam mana-mana pertandingan 3 penjuru di Sarawak.

Kali ini kita lihat samada PKR mempunyai kematangan dalam mengendalikan ‘coalition’ yang lebih besar.

SNAP’s return haunts Taib and PKR - Joe Fernandez

All this has brought the current political situation in Sarawak full circle, with SNAP once again virtually calling the shots. The party stands poised as the most credible threat to the ruling coalition and well-placed to deny it the 29 Dayak state seats.

by Joe Fernandez at Free Malaysia Today

---

Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud, by all accounts, is thinking of going for state election sooner rather than later. This is being driven by the SNAP factor. The Sarawak National Party’s rapidly growing influence since its recent rejuvenation indicates that the Dayak majority of Sarawak is becoming increasingly restless. Taib, being a Melanau, is also a Dayak, but he’s from a Muslim minority.

Taib, according to one report, is fumbling “like a man driven berserk” for an election date in March or April. The speculation is that any date with a 9 in it, or which adds up to 9, such as 18 or 27, would be the date of the next state election. Nine is Taib’s favourite number.

With events on the Sarawak ground rapidly spinning out of control, he can no longer afford the luxury of waiting for Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to accept his idea of the Sarawak election running simultaneously with the general election, which, according to his thinking, would take the intense opposition heat off him. This is especially true in the Chinese and urban areas, in many Dayak seats and some Muslim seats.

No such luck for Taib. Najib, with former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad breathing down his neck, is more interested in saving in own skin than swimming or sinking with the Sarawak chief minister. He may well remember Mahathir raising the hand of then Sabah Chief Minister Harris Salleh in public in 1985 and pledging to swim or sink with the Harris’s Berjaya Party. Harris sank, but Mahathir swam safely to shore.

Najib, whom Kelantan strongman Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah once described as yellow-bellied, is more inclined to treat Taib as a guinea pig in his bid for his own mandate. The number of state seats that Taib’s coalition can muster will give Najib an idea of how many of the 31 parliamentary seats in Sarawak he can count on when it is his turn to face the people.

In Sarawak 2011, there are shades of Sabah 1985, when the 45-day-old Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) defeated the mighty Berjaya. Even Harris lost his deposit at the hands of the unknown Kadoh Agundong.

Senior Sarawak Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders grudgingly concede that SNAP currently presents the most serious threat to Taib’s Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) and its hold on power. DAP is a threat only to the Chinese-based Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP), which Taib may be forced to sacrifice anyway to fend off the opposition and to better focus on what he can keep.

What particularly rankles Taib is that Daniel Tajem anak Miri, a sworn enemy, is back in the limelight as SNAP adviser. Tajem, once deputy chief minister under Taib, was a senior leader in SNAP until 1983, when it suffered a breakup that gave birth to Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS), evidently financed by PBB moneybags under Taib’s direction.

Deeply suspicious

Taib, still deeply suspicious that the Dayaks would unite and overthrow his family’s dynastic hold on power, also financed the splintering of PBDS after Tajem became its president in 2003. The breakaway was Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) under James Masing. Only 20,000 members from PBDS, less than half of them Dayaks, joined Masing.

PBDS itself was deregistered and attempts by Tajem to gather his people, numbering over 100,000 by a conservative count, under the Malaysian Dayak Congress (MDC) was thwarted by the Registrar of Societies (ROS) on “national security grounds”.

Tajem parked himself at the Sarawak PKR as adviser.

The rump SNAP was further humiliated when PBB financed the breakaway Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) in 2002 under William Mawan. SNAP was kicked out of Sarawak BN the day the ROS deregistered it. The courts subsequently saved SNAP after many months.

Taib tried to have PRS deregistered as well between the 2004 and 2008 general elections. However, then prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi stepped in and saved the party just as he was going for the early polls that eventually cooked his goose.

SPDP has also suffered at the hands of Taib’s mischief-making, which saw half its legislators swearing allegiance to Masing and making bids to join PRS.

All this has brought the current political situation in Sarawak full circle, with SNAP once again virtually calling the shots. The party stands poised as the most credible threat to the ruling coalition and well-placed to deny it the 29 Dayak state seats.

Harsh reality

Now Taib’s past is haunting his future.

Sarawak PKR would obviously like to have some of the Dayak seats besides the two Chinese seats promised it by DAP under a condition which is unlikely to be met. DAP wants PKR’s Dominic Ng of Padungan put in cold storage.

SNAP, however, wants Sarawak PKR to focus on the Muslim seats, including the Muslim Melanau seats, and stay clear of the non-Muslim native seats. This is unlikely to go down well with Sarawak PKR, which is led by introvert land rights lawyer and activist Baru Bian, a Dayak Christian.

At one time, there was strong talk that Bian would ditch PKR for SNAP, but this became difficult after he was appointed head of the party’s Sarawak chapter.

In any case, Sarawak PKR has yet to come to terms with the harsh reality that it no longer calls the shots in Sarawak Pakatan Rakyat. Taib has capitalised on this by advising businessman Sng Chee Hua to offer to finance PKR candidates at the next state election. The condition is that Sng would suggest who would represent PKR.

This arrangement is likely to end in disaster for PKR at the polls, especially if the party insists on fielding candidates in Dayak seats.

Sng is a former deputy president of PRS and former deputy president of PBDS when Masing, in defiance of Tajem, claimed to be the party president as well. This was after Leo Moggie anak Irok stepped down in 2003.

Sng’s son Larry is a party-less assistant minister in Taib’s Cabinet – after his claim to be PRS president failed – and is married to the daughter of construction tycoon Ting Pek King. The younger Sng holds the majority Iban Pelagus seat, which “belongs” to PRS under the Sarawak BN quota system.