Even before the date of the by-election for Batang Ai is fixed on Wednesday next week, the towns in Sarawak are already abuzz with the question of who will be the fighting cocks in the much anticipated contest.

Thanks to a bunch of dedicated Sarawak bloggers, I am kept pretty well informed of what is going the round in the real and virtual cafes in the Land of the Hornbill, even though I now reside in Cheras, Selangor.

On the Barisan Nasional side, the leading candidates seem to be the two Nelsons, Nelson Mujah and Nelson Naga Alam. (Some Iban names may take getting used to for Malaysians outside Sarawak.)

The two Nelsons

This is what Joseph Tawie, the host of the blog site The Broken Shield has to say about the first Nelson from BN:

“As for BN, two candidates have become the talks of the town; one is the district officer, Lubok Antu, Nelson Mujah, who is the brother of the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Douglas Uggah Embas.

"For the past few months he has been going around the constituency accompanied by the MP for Lubok Antu, William Nyallau Badak and state assemblyman for Engkilili, Johnichol Rayong. Both Nyallau and Rayong have been discreetly telling the voters of the possibility of the by-election and that Mujah could be the candidate representing the Barisan Nasional.”

For the information of my readers outside Sarawak, genealogical lineage – where you are born and to whom you are related - is very important to the Iban people.

I have met many Ibans in various rural parts of Sarawak who could trace their genealogical roots for many generations backward kept on record simply by their amazing oral traditions. At that time, I was married to an Iban woman, and discovered to my surprise that I had Iban relatives by marriage in many unlikely corners of my vast home state.

In this vein, I am informed by Dr John Brian Anthony, host of the blog site Dayak Baru web blog of the relationship between Nelson Mujah and Douglas Unggah. They are “blood brothers whose parents lived in Balingian.

sarawak state seat 2006 breakdown 011208 But Douglas Unggah was adopted by Embas of Betong, where he still resides and builds his political base. But the blood tie between the two men must still remain strong, as is the case with Iban culture and tradition. Blood brothers are daging darah diri empu (own flesh and blood).

John Brian Anthony has this observation to offer on the importance of blood ties in Sarawak politics:

“There are many combinations of “family ties” in Sarawak politics. In this way, Sarawak is building “political elitist” slowly but surely. Taib and his son, Jabu and his nephew, now they are trying Unggah and Nelson brothers’ team. All these come from BN camp.”

“It is their way of controlling politics and the business in Sarawak. Their supporters are putting all effort to make this happen so that they can get more business favour from this arrangement should Nelson win this candidacy and election.”

The lobby for Nelson Mujah has another political dimension in the internal rivalry between the component parties of the Sarawak Barisan Nasional.

The late Dublin Unting was a vice-president of the Dayak-based party PRS of which Dr James Masing is the president. Therefore, the seat of Batang Ai vacated upon his death ought to be contested by a PRS man, in this case, Nelson Naga Alam, Dublin’s nephew and his personal assistant until his death. This second Nelson is also a local resident of Batang Ai. He would be the logical candidate.

douglas uggah embas Douglas Uggah is a senior vice-president of Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud’s PBB, the dominant party within the ruling coalition. He is one of the most senior leaders within the Dayak “Persaka” arm of the Malay/Melanau/Dayak alliance that constitutes the mixed-bag PBB.

The Dayak Persaka arm of the PBB under the supreme leadership of Deputy Chief Minister Alfred Jabu has had spates of tension with James Masing’s PRS because of intense competition to claim exclusive right to represent the Dayak community. So far, PRS seems to have the shorter end of the stick in this on-going saga of backroom intrigue.

Follow the smell of money

The final choice of the BN candidate for the Batang Ai by-election would therefore be telling in more ways than one.

james masing If Nelson Mujah is finally selected as the candidate, it would have meant that the arm twisting applied on James Masing by his coalition partners had been successful.

Already, Masing is very much under siege with another rival faction within his own PRS headed by Larry Sng, son of businessman Sng Chee Hua, and son-in-law of tycoon Ting Pek Kiing. Losing out on the question of candidature in Batang Ai will not enhance his prestige as a political leader.

Even if Nelson Mujah ends up as the BN candidate, he would probably contest under the PRS banner. But his blood tie with Douglas Unggah would mean that his final personal loyalty would always be aligned to the PBB, rather than to the PRS.

(If you find this analysis difficult to follow, I understand. I too had some trouble trying to unravel the plots. But this is politics Sarawak style, convoluted, personal, and complex. My advice is: just follow the smell of money.)

This BN internal rivalry should be good news for the opposition PKR. It would mean that when the BN cockerel jumped into the pit to face the fierce bird from PKR for a fight to the finish, he would probably have been back-stabbed by his own friends.

nicholas bawin pkr candidate for batang ai state seat 270209 03 So far, the PKR leading candidate has been Nicholas Bawin, the PKR Sarawak deputy chief. He is also a local from Batang Ai, and had fought Dublin Unting in the last round, losing by a mere 806 votes.

But the newly emergent PKR in Sarawak is a rag-tag rainbow coalition of sometimes very unlikely allies, and Dayak politics in Sarawak has been nothing less than divisive traditionally. There must be some friends of PKR who are unhappy with Nicholas Bawin’s candidature.

I have read Internet postings complaining that Bawin comes across as too much like a Man of God, rather than a Man of the People. Many Ibans are Christians, but many still practice their animist beliefs. His detractors say that politics should never mix with religion.

I have no way of ascertaining whether this allegation is indeed true. But some political reformers in the past have been motivated by their religious conviction; Martin Luther King comes to mind immediately.

Here, the Batang Ai by-election offers a chance for a new kind of Dayak politics, using the PKR as a new platform. They must learn from PAS in the case of Kuala Terengganu by-election. Before nomination day, they can argue and lobby for candidature until the cow come home, but once the final decision is made through due process, they should present a united front against the mighty and well-oiled BN machinery.

Naturally, the Batang Ai by-election also provides PKR with a perfect opportunity to roll out their grand vision of a better Sarawak, if and when they can succeed in wrestling state power away from the BN. It will be their first Battle Royale in this crucial state, and a humiliating loss here in the Iban rural heartland would be an unacceptable option.

bm version batang air state seat 240209 Meanwhile, I hope the Sarawak bloggers calling for change can form a Barisan Rakyat Sarawak, after the fashion of the Barisan Rakyat in West Malaysia led by Raja Petra Kamarudin.

Perhaps, even at this early stage, they may want to send in a team to Batang Ai just to size up the constituency and gauge public sentiments.

If funding is a problem, perhaps they should try to raise funds on the Internet. Their reports on site accompanied by pictures would not only help the opposition cause, but would also tell their Sarawak stories to the rest of Malaysia and the world.

For once, they would give the humble Iban villagers a powerful voice, which has been silenced for too long. That would indeed be citizen journalism at its best.

Bloggers are the latest new-comers to the politics of civil society. They can amass tremendous social capital on the Internet that is so important for the development of a democratic culture in Malaysia. They can also give a new meaning to public participation in the political process.

SIM KWANG YANG was MP for Bandar Kuching from 1982 to 1995. He can be reached at kenyalang578@hotmail.com.

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