PKR no pushover in Sarawak

Mohd Ariff Sabri Aziz | December 6, 2011

The April 16 Sarawak election proved that despite Umno maligning Anwar Ibrahim, PKR still made 'inroads into Dayak ground'.

COMMENT

There’s a view that PKR cannot win any parliamentary seats in Sarawak and that all embattled Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) seats will go to DAP.

Allow me to cite one observation passed to me by the Oracle of Syed Putera, who incidentally is the alter ego of former economic adviser Daim Zainuddin.

You can almost say that whatever the Oracle spews is what Daim thinks.

Recalling the April 16 Sarawak state election, the Oracle said the 100 percent victory by Taib Mahmud’s Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) wasn’t unexpected. PBB won all 35 seats it contested in the state election unlike Umno (in 2008 polls).

But the Oracle was more concerned about the victory by PKR in the Sarawak state election.

He said that Anwar Ibrahim (PKR de facto leader) with all the character assassinations carried out on a daily basis, had managed to assist Sarawak PKR chairman Baru Bian get three seats!

What do the wins represent?

Unless Umno people are sleeping or are busy shashaying in the lobby of Concorde Hotel and cockily holding fort in the coffee house, the wins tell us that the OPPOSITION CAN WIN.

PKR made inroads into Dayak grounds.

Then came the news about the sacking of one MP from the Sarawak Barisan Nasional coalition – Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party’s (SPDP) Dr Tiki Lafe from Mas Gading. SPDP has four parliamentary seats.

The sacking shows there is dissent within the SPDP and may result in election losses.

With the SUPP gone, PBB is banking on SPDP and PRS which has six seats.

Both SPDP and PRS have now 10 seats between them but a number of these will fall to PKR, predicts the Oracle.

The Oracle adds that the opposition has already 16 seats in the bag from Sarawak. And that’s just a precursor of worse things to come.

The writer is a former Umno state assemblyman and a FMT columnist.

Tengku Adnan to sort issues with Sarawak parties

SATURDAY, 27 FEBRUARY 2010 11:28

JULAU: Barisan Nasional secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor will meet former Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) secretary-general Sylvester Entri Muran and others today in a move to try and resolve the hiccup in the party.

Tengku Adnan, who was despatched to Kuching apparently to work behind the scenes to quickly mediate a settlement, will also be meeting Party Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) president Datuk Seri James Masing.

The problem in SPDP arose after its recent triennial general assembly when president Datuk Seri William Mawan Ikom appointed Nelson Balang, who is Ba Kelalan state assemblyman, to replace Entri as the new secretary-general.

This did not go down well with Entri and four others – senior vice-president Datuk Peter Nansian, information chief Paulus Palu Gumbang (state assemblyman for Batu Danau), Rosey Yunus (Bekenu) and Dr Tiki Lafe (MP for Mas Gading). Three supreme council members Peter Gani, George Garai and Eda Egar had also reportedly thrown their weight behind Entri.

They then decided to merge immediately on their own with PRS without going through Peter Nyarok, who is the SPDP chairman of the proposed merger committee.

SPDP supreme council member Paul Igai confirmed that Tengku Adnan was helping to resolve the hiccup in his party.

"He may most probably be attending our supreme council meeting this Sunday (tomorrow)," he said

Adnan had recently met with Mawan, deputy president Datuk Peter Nyarok, secretary-general Nelson Balang Rining and treasurer-general and Bintulu MP Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing.

A PRS leader, who refused to be identified, is delighted with the move by the group to register with PRS, saying it would only strengthen their pool of elected representatives, and reportedly open the way for the merger of Dayak-based parties. PRS currently has nine state assemblymen and six MPs.

Political observers, however, see the crisis has yet another of Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud's strategies to stay in power.

One observer had reportedly said: "He creates the unrest to show the federal BN leaders that without him BN in Sarawak will disintegrate."