‘Sarawak for Sarawakians’. This is the campaign theme of Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) president James Jemut Masing for the April 7 Batang Ai by-election deep in the Iban heartland.

james masing Answering opposition criticism that he doesn’t stand up for the Dayak community or even for himself, Masing said: “I have had enough of foreign intrusion, including PKR, telling us what to do.

“It’s Sarawak for Sarawakians. That’s why we said ‘No’ to Umno (being in Sarawak). By standing up against a peninsula-based party, I am standing up for the Dayaks.”

The constant theme in Sarawak these days is that Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) under Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud and his deputy Alfred Jabu anak Numpang, routinely bully the other BN component parties into submission despite their power-sharing formula.

Masing, the BN director of elections in Batang Ai, said he finds it ironic that “people don’t mind the Dayaks being bullied by (PKR de facto leader) Anwar (Ibrahim) but not by Taib and Jabu. That’s interesting logic.”

“It’s not true that we give in to bullying tamely. In 1996, Jabu wanted to put his nominee in Belaga state seat but PBDS (Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak), through me, stopped him. We nominated Stanley Ajang,” he said.

Masing, however, glossed over the fact that Jabu had previously bulldozed through his ‘loan’ candidates in other cases.

batang air state seat 240209 For example, Lubuk Antu MP William Nyallu and Sri Aman MP Mesir Kujat, both from PBB, are “on loan” to PRS. This remains a sore point with the party which was set up the day PBDS was deregistered.

Masing would not be drawn into commenting on PKR’s pledge that, since the Dayaks form the single biggest ethnic grouping in the Sarawak state assembly, the party would select a member of the community to be the chief minister.

Instead, he depicted PKR as a party “using Dayaks to fight Dayaks” and said it should be stopped in its tracks.

PKR has picked Jawah Gerang, five times consecutive winner in Lubuk Antu under PBDS and PRS, to take on Malcolm Mussen Lamoh from of PRS in Batang Ai, a state seat under the Lubok Antu parliamentary constituency.

View of ‘turncoats’

Masing also commented on the early campaign trail, speaking disparagingly of Jawah and other former BN members now in PKR.

“The people are confused because when these same people were serving under the BN government, they were saying many nice and rosy things about BN and encouraging people to support BN.

"Today, these turncoats are saying all sorts of bad things about the government, dragging people here and there to follow their own personal political agenda.

“If they work with us, we can together find ways to further improve and upgrade the living standards of our rural people. By opting to oppose the BN, they are denying access and the opportunity for development.”

taib mahmud alfred jabu pbb prs 011108 Masing is a prime target in the opposition rhetoric. They have been calls for him to apologise to the people of Batang Ai on behalf of Taib and Jabu and make good a list of broken promises.

These include unresolved compensation issues involving the Batang Ai dam and questions over native customary rights to land.

The Batang Ai by-election follows the death on Feb 24 of its state assemblyperson Dublin Unting Ingkot. Unting, 55, failed to come out of an induced coma following a stroke suffered in last May.

Come April 7, all eyes will be on the Ulu Engkari stretch in Batang Ai where Unting had collected an embarrassing one vote to scrape through with a slender 806 votes in the last outing.