The question of who will lead PKR in the state may be up in the air in Sabah, but in Sarawak a consensus is coalescing around making lawyer Baru Bian the point man.

zaid ibrahim Zaid Ibrahim's ( photo ) visit to Kuching yesterday apparently helped crystallise a preference for the Native Customary Rights counsel who was present among some hundred PKR activists and community leaders at a tea hosted by elder statesman Daniel Tajem at the latter's residence.

Though the majority of the attendees were Dayak, there were significant numbers of Malay and Chinese notables present.

"They wanted to hear what Zaid had to say on matters concerning Sarawak and Sabah in the context of the merger agreement of 1963," said Tajem to Malaysiakini .

daniel tajem 170609 "They were reassured by what they heard and afterwards feelings began to run in favor of Baru as the person most suitable to wear the mantle of state leadership," remarked Tajem ( right ).

Essentially, Zaid told the gathering that he favored local determination on the question of who should lead PKR in Sarawak, the same message he conveyed to a PKR Aidilfitri gathering the previous day in the Sabah capital of Kota Kinabalu where his reception was rapturous and his tidings lauded.

Presently, the Sarawak party chief is Mustaffa Kamil Ayub, a national PKR leader from the peninsula.

Though this is not seen as a permanent arrangement, the fact that PKR Sarawak and Sabah have Kuala Lumpur-appointed leaders (Azmin Ali is the Sabah chief) has been viewed in the two Borneo states as slighting the locals' capacity to lead.

This view rubs more salt on the long festering wound in the two states' pride over perceived derogation in their status from special territories at merger in 1963 to ordinary states in the federation, a descent they want rectified under a Pakatan Rakyat-led federal government.

Zaid's remarks on this score over tea at Tajem's house raised hopes of grand rectification to come.

Not a single negative vibe

baru bian After that, an informal consensus developed around proposing Baru Bian ( left ) as the man most suited to the task of unifying the burgeoning band of PKR sympathisers among Sarawak's ethnic mosaic under the party's banner.

"I have not heard a single negative vibe against the consensus that developed at the function," offered John Brian Anthony, a blogger and oil palm smallholder, the day following the gathering.

Brian, a likely PKR candidate in upcoming state elections, cited Baru's track record of unremitting labour in NCR land cases, his freedom from any taint of corruption, and his leader-like deportment as virtues that have swayed support in his favor.

Baru is involved in something like 200 cases where Dayaks are fighting to preserve NCR land from being taken over by logging and plantation agriculture companies. His legal work has helped raise his profile in the community.

But the fact that he belongs to the Orang Ulu, the smallest community among the Dayak, tended to count against Baru, who is a Lun Bawang.

parti keadilan rakyat pkr and sarawak state election The Iban are by far the largest ethnic group among the Dayak, with the Bidayuh a distant second. Orang Ulu is the preferred nomenclature for an ethnic cluster that includes the Kayan, Kenyah, Kelabit and Penan.

In the past, in Dayak leadership stakes, the Iban dominated by dint of their outsize presence in the population.

But from the time the Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak, an Iban-inspired splinter from the multi-racial Snap, was deregistered in 2004, their leaders have found it tough maintaining their political primacy among the Dayak, especially among the opposition.

"I don't think the Iban will resent the choice of a Kelabit of Baru's standing as the Dayak leader," remarked Brian.

"I also back him to rise above parochialism to unite all of Sarawak's communities under the multi-racial banner of PKR. He knows struggle and has been tested by it. He will come out well," offered Brian.