[Sarawak] Articles

Sarawak politics – the years ahead
Sim Kwang Yang
May 20, 06 4:23pm



The publication of this article on a Saturday coincides with polling day in yet another Sarawak state election.

The last minute scramble for the last batch of undecided votes in all constituencies must have been terrifyingly intense. The overriding objective is to win, at all cost, and no holds are barred in these last moments of anguish for the contestants.

Finally, all the preparations have come down to this final stretch. All the dwindling resources are poured into one last push. This is a time for all the dirty tricks in the book, plus some that are not in any book. The vote-buying, the betting, and the intimidation must now reach a climax, to exert maximum impact. It is also about time for the invisible army of phantom voters to come on stage out of nowhere.

When you read this article, the election is probably over. All the results are out, declared in a neutral tone by robot-like announcers on television and radio. In the following days, the newspapers will be full of so-called analysis, detailing why candidates win or lose with the wisdom of hindsight, and with reasons that can neither be verified nor falsified.

The victors will be happy beyond words, holding thank-you dinners for party workers and supporters. Some may even go around shaking hands and thanking their voters. The privileged few will be in Kuching, jostling for position in the new state cabinet. The vanquished will be devastated, since all candidates expect to win. They will retire into their caves, to lick their wounds, trying to pick up the pieces, and counting their election debt perhaps.

The party workers will have to stir with reluctance, prodding one another into action yet again, for there are tons of dilapidated posters, bill-boards and banners to clean up, as is stipulated in their contract. The bettors will either explode with great joy or great misery, as millions or more change hands.

Meanwhile, the election officials, the police and the media people heave a sigh of relief, pack up their gears, and head for home. Everybody is exhausted from the overdose of politics, and is glad it is finally over.

On the eve of polling, I look into my crystal ball, and predict a landslide victory for the BN. The combined total number of seats won by opposition parties and independents will not exceed the number of fingers on one hand, if at all they win any seat.

In past elections, I have made similar predictions for my own amusement, hoping against hope that I would be proven wrong So far, my prophesy of doom has never been disproved. Sarawak politics is that predictable. Naturally, like a deluded fool, I still keep hoping that I will be proven wrong.

The future of Sarawak is much less certain though. A change in the top leadership is imminent, and the natives are restless tonight.

Ideal time for transition

The present CM has ruled Sarawak for 25 years, longer than any political leader at federal or state level. His grip on power borders on the absolute. He is certainly much more powerful and more prosperous than all the three British Brooke Rajahs put together!

But he will turn 70 immediately after the election. Recently, he has had a health scare that must have reminded him of his inevitable mortality. To retire is not a question of “if”, but “when”! Nobody can beat the law of nature.

There is that eternal and seemingly insoluble problem of succession, with which the CM has been grappling for a decade or so. Like all political strongmen in history, he will not find any potential heir strong enough to fill his enlarged shoes.

Nevertheless, on paper at least, this is an ideal time for a smooth transition of power at the very top.

The cash-strapped and resource-poor opposition parties have been languishing in the wilderness for two decades since the Ming Court Affair in 1987. Inter-ethnic and intra-ethnic fragmentation has prevented the emergence of a broad-based challenge for state power.

Besides, of all the Sarawak BN parties, the PBB – under the skilful stewardship of the past two CMs – has proven itself to be most adaptable to the multi-ethnic reality of Sarawak.

With the merging of the Malay/Melanau Bumiputera arm and the Dayak Persaka component in the 70s, The PBB has indeed claimed for itself the legitimacy of dominance in the name of Muslim and non-Muslim natives in Sarawak. With the full and suppliant support of the Supp representing the Chinese, the PBB hardly needs anybody else to rule the state.

A series of constituency delineation exercises over the years has given the PBB nearly half the total number of seats in the state assembly. In another five or 10 years perhaps, the PBB will be able to rule alone, and so no longer dependent on the whims and changing fortunes of their allies in the ruling coalition.

In short, the current CM, just like his uncle and predecessor, has proven to be a master of Machiavellian statecraft, of divide-and-rule, in subverting the logic of politics of race, in denying the possibility of a Dayak CM, and allowing the rule by a minority ethnic group in a multi-ethnic state.

The Melanaus

Ironically, that twist in ethnic logic which has swept the CM into power is the very factor that haunts the question of who is going to inherit his throne now.

You see, the current CM is not really Malay, but a Muslim Melanau. The Melanaus are a small ethnic group in Sarawak, comprising about 7% of the population of Sarawak. About half of them are also Christians!

Under the tutelage of the last two Melanau CMs in Sarawak since 1970, top positions in public office and in government-linked commerce have been given to Melanau individuals.

A Melanau friend of mine jokingly declared that the Melanaus are the first class bumiputeras in Sarawak. By implication, the Malays are second-class bumiputeras, and the Dayaks, third class natives. I personally do not conceive of politics in these narrow ethnic terms, but that is the common perception in race-torn Malaysia.

Naturally, one expects that the next CM of Sarawak to be yet again a Melanau. This unpleasant prospect must prove to be extremely disconcerting for blue-blooded Malay leaders within the PBB.

Of the three front runners for many years, Abang Johari and Adenan Satem are both bona fide Malays. A few years ago, Abang Jo contested the position of PBB deputy president against Adenan, who was obviously the CM’s choice. Abang Jo did win, by courting support among the Dayak wing of the party. It was a Pyrrhic victory for him, as he was sidelined and publicly humiliated by the CM afterwards.

Adenan has always been personally loyal to the CM, but the latest development sends out confusing messages. Recently, during the latest round of federal cabinet reshuffle, he resigned from his ministerial position to return to Sarawak, an indication of his intention perhaps to pursue his path towards the highest office at state level.

Lately, I hear that his aspiration may be frustrated. In this general election, he has given up his long-held seat of Muara Tuang to the CM’s brother Ali Mahmud (left), a completely new comer to the political scene. He was sent instead to a distant constituency. It feels like exile.

The third front runner, Effendi Norwawi (right) has just been recruited to the federal cabinet via the back door of his appointment as a senator, since he did not contest in the last parliamentary election. Though he is also a Melanau, he does carry considerable personal package, which may not have pleased the CM. My guess is that he is also on the way out.

Victim of own success

Before this last round of state election, rumours were rife that the CM was going to groom his son to take over from him. He has dispelled such rumours, and the son did not contest. That would leave the CM’s brother, the said Ali Mahmud, who certainly has not shown any of the guiles of his dominant brother in running a political party or an entire state.

Perhaps the CM has become a victim of his own success in dividing and ruling all the heavyweights in his party. In entrenching his own unchallengeable position of party supreme, in weakening all possible challengers, he has made it impossible for anyone else to succeed him. He is truly stuck. One wrong move and the legacy of his 25-year rule may be wiped out, just as he wiped out his uncle’s legacy before him.

Meanwhile, disgruntled Malay leaders here and there within the PBB dream of Umno entry into Sarawak. But there is an understanding between KL and Kuching that as long as the CM is the CM, Umno will not march across the South China Sea, as they have done in Sabah.

With all these undercurrents swirling beneath the surface, things are never what they seem to be. All I know is that the day the CM steps down from his exalted position, all kinds of unknown variables will surface, and Sarawak politics will then become interesting.

Real changes in Sarawak will not be determined by the general elections, but by movements in the palaces “across the river”. That is Sarawak democracy for you.




Sim Kwang Yang SIM KWANG YANG was DAP MP for Bandar Kuching in Sarawak 1982-1995. Since retiring in 1995, he has become a freelance writer in the Chinese-language press, and taught philosophy in a local college for three years. He is now working with an NGO in Kuala Lumpur, the Omnicron Learning Circle, which is aimed at continuing learning for working adults and college students. Suggestions and feedback can reach him at: kenyalang578@hotmail.com. 'An Examined Life' appears in Malaysiakini every Saturday.