Judging by name and face recognition, Daniel Tajem Miri is still a factor in Iban politics if a walkabout by the former Parti Bangsa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) leader in Lubok Antu town yesterday was anything to go by.

The 72-year-old Tajem was greeted by residents and also by outsiders who with hands extended came up to the former deputy chief minister to ask after his welfare as he strolled about the one-street town and drank his favourite coffee in the shops.

daniel tajem and sarawak state election Tajem had come to campaign for PKR in the Batang Ai by-election in response to Anwar Ibrahim’s request that he stump for Jawah Gerang whom Tajem knew in the days of PBDS in Sarawak politics in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

These days Tajem is almost retired from politics after a lifetime of involvement in groups like Sarawak National Party (Snap), PBDS and with the Malayan Dayak Congress which failed to get registered after a three-year effort. Tajem was adviser to the yet-to-be registered body.

Although he has waged many partisan battles, and has been tagged by opponents as anti-certain ethnic groups in Sarawak, the varied ethnicities of people who stopped to talk to Tajem indicated that he enjoys a stature transcending race, even political affiliations.

Brief encounter with nemesis

The latter aspect was particularly evident when at one point while strolling about the main square in Lubok Antu, Tajem encountered a line of Barisan Nasional dignitaries led by Deputy Chief Minister Alfred Jabu, in town to campaign for ruling coalition’s candidate Malcolm Mussen Lamoh.

kuching nomination day 090506 alfred jabu and friends While old nemesis Jabu’s hello and handshake were perfunctory at best, every single one in the line behind shook Tajem’s hand with successively greater warmth until finally the last person stopped and chatted with him with what could be only fondness.

Later Tajem, in deference to his age, was assigned to speak at longhouses a short distance from town, travel in parts of Batang Ai being hard on ageing bones and joints especially when done over undulating gravel and dirt roads to longhouses a long way in from the main road linking Lubok Antu to nearby Seri Aman.

At two ceramah, at Kampong Pudai and Kampong Mepi Pasir, Tajem liberally laced his spiel with humour and urged his listeners to be brave enough to effect change in Sarawak which he said a victory of Jawah would herald.

At both stops, the elderly and gray-haired among his listeners delayed Tajem’s departure after he had spoken, stopping to shake hands and briefly reminisce about times in the past when the ageing warrior was a prime exponent of Dayakism in Sarawakian politics.