PBB election to gauge whats to come

comments     Tony Thien     Published     Updated

news feature

Although the top posts in the supreme council, youth and women's wings of Parti Pesaka-Bumiputra Bersatu Sarawak (PBB) will be uncontested during the party's July 5-9 convention, the contest for other posts will be a barometer for what is to come in the next party convention in 2005.

There will be no contest for the president, the two deputy president, two senior vice president and seven vice-president posts of the party, which is the backbone of the ruling Sarawak Barisan Nasional.

All posts in the women's wing will be uncontested. Its chief Sharifah Mordiah, an assistant minister, and Impiang Jabu, wife of PBB deputy president and Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Alfred Jabu, were returned unopposed, as were all incumbents.

To avoid a similar split as seen in the last party elections in 1998, PBB chairperson Abdul Taib Mahmud convinced supreme council members to work for all top posts down to the seven vice-presidents — four reserved for the Bumiputra (Malay/Melanau) wing and three reserved for the Pesaka (Iban/Bidayuh/Orang Ulu) wing — to be uncontested which he succeeded in doing when nominations closed last week.

But Taib, who is also Sarawak Chief Minister, has let both incumbents and aspirants for the remaining 20 ordinary supreme council posts — 11 for Bumiputra and nine for Pesaka — to be contested, allowing the delegates to pick who they want and for the candidates to test their popularity.

Many of the candidates are elected representatives and even if they do not contest, they will automatically become members of the supreme council.

But there is a strong underlying current to the campaign for the supreme council as much as for the exco posts within the youth wing.

Almost without exceptions, both incumbents and new candidates for posts in the supreme council and youth exco are identified or aligned with either Group A or Group B.

According to several party members, Group A is aligned to PBB senior vice-president and Minister of Agriculture and Food Industries Adenan Satem and PBB treasurer and Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister's Office Awang Tengah Ali Hasan.

Meanwhile, there is a tendency to link Group B with PBB deputy president and Minister of Tourism Abang Johari Tun Openg, who surprised Taib in the last party elections when he beat Adenan who was seen largely as the party president's preferred choice.

Bitterness lingers

The 1998 contest for the number two post in PBB still leaves some bitterness among certain quarters and the rift has not, according to most observations, healed although Johari — son of Sarawak's first post-Malaysia governor or head of state Tun Openg — and Adenan, who also comes from a respectable Kuching Malay family, have always been seen to be on amiable terms.

In reality, Adenan or at least many of his strong supporters are still quite sore about his defeat which they partly blame on the strong support from the Pesaka wing and the influence of former PBB secretary-general Leonard Linggi Jugah — who resigned recently after 26 years as secretary-general.

There are 18 candidates vying for the 11 ordinary supreme council posts.

All 11 bumiputra incumbents are seeking re-election.They include Mohd Ali, a brother of Taib Mahmud, and seven state assemblypersons, one member of parliament and one senator.The 11th is a successful Malay businessman, Mohd Ghazali Kipli.

Two state assemblypersons — Wahab Aziz and Dr Draup Hj Zen (an assistant minister) who lost in the 1998 party elections — are trying again.

Two others who also lost the last election, Hashim Yap and Kaider Khan, will also test their fortunes this weekend.

The three who are new faces are Rony Assim, Osman Marzuki and Abdullah Mohd Noor.

Rony, who received few nominations, told malaysiakini that he is not aligned to any group.

"I don't want to show my children I am aligned to this or that group," said the former diplomat.

"I am a party member and I feel delegates should be given a choice. As a leader, one must be prepared to take risks otherwise why be a leader at all?" asked Rony who admitted that he will be facing an uphill battle.

Fewer candidates

However, within the Pesaka section, there are fewer candidates vying for the nine posts. At the moment, there are only 10 and if one of them should withdraw, the rest will be returned.

Originally, there were 14, including the member of parliament for Betong and Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Douglas Uggah who has been made PBB youth chief in place of Gramong Juna, an assistant minister.

Uggah is also tipped to be PBB's new secretary-general, succeeding Leonard Linggi Jugah.

While Taib is expected to stick to tradition in reserving the secretary-general post for a Pesaka candidate, he may surprise members by picking a non-Iban in which case Gramong will be out.

Another name mentioned as a possible candidate is Peter Minos, a former president of the Dayak Bidayuh National Association. Minos, an economist-cum-lawyer and newspaper columnist, is presently the party's assistant secretary-general.

With the non-election of virtually all the top posts, the focus of attention this time will be on the fight for the ordinary supreme council and youth exco posts.

As candidates are identified with the different factions, this contest, in the words of a PBB operative, will be a barometer to gauge the popularity of the individual candidates as well as the support for the group now actively campaigning for Adenan Satem.

All, except for one, of the top posts in the youth wing are uncontested. One of the three youth vice-president posts reserved for the Bidayuh/Orang Ulu will see a fight between the incumbent Martin, son of former PBB assemblyperson Michael Ben and bank officer Munded Banat — said to be aligned to a PBB vice president and an assistant minister Michael Manyin.

"This contest is also seen as a proxy fight between the two groups," said one political analyst.

The young and more ambitious party leaders see success at the coming polls as crucial for paving their way into the 2005 party elections or even earlier should Taib finally call it a day.



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