Baru Bian, PKR's torchbearer in the election on whom the hope of an upset victory by Pakatan Rakyat resides, was reliant on the power of prayer to overcome the lure of BN's lucre.
While stumping in a village in Ba'Kelalan in the last few hours to polling, Baru, reached on the phone, was calm and collected as he rated his chances in the election where a win by him would be of huge symbolic significance even if unaccompanied by victories to others among the PKR cohort.
"My chances are good," said Baru, for whom victory in Ba'Kelalan is a sine qua non for ascendancy to the position as opposition leader but also as the top Dayak oppositionist.
The Dayaks have not had a candidate for that position in a long time mainly because anyone shaping to come through the ranks is co-opted into the BN, either through direct invitation or through a lack of endurance in the opposition front.
Baru is the first Dayak politico in two decades to persist in opposition, thanks to his largely successful legal espousal of native customary land rights supported by his Christian convictions.
Hence the predictability of his response when asked how the Ba'Kelalan electorate would react to the lure of BN's “secret weapon”.
"We are praying that our people would overcome the temptation," said Baru.
Uncle versus nephew
A former elder in the Sidang Injil Borneo (Borneo Evangelical Mission), Baru resigned his position early last year to free himself from a conflict of interests.
The decision meant that he would not jeopardise the small Lun Bawang community, famously adherent to the SIB confession, by his political choices.
Victory for Baru, 53, who has contested in elections since 1991 on opposition tickets, will present him with new challenges certain to be more testing than any he has faced in his career thus far.
Doubtless, the divinities would be invoked as aids in his quest to marry Christina morality with the devices of politics – an always tricky question for a politician.
In 2006, Baru lost to Balang Rining from SPDP by 475 votes. This time he is taking on his nephew, Willie Liau, also from SPDP.
