COMMENT The privilege of announcing the BN candidate line-up, usually the preserve of the chief minister, was given to Adenan Satem yesterday in a departure from form that has sparked renewed speculation about the race to replace Abdul Taib Mahmud.

taib and adenan staem shaking hands 180305 Taib ( right ) had chaired the Sarawak BN meeting at the PBB headquarters but did not stay back for the press conference afterwards when the BN candidate list was unveiled.

That task was given to Adenan ( shaking Taib's hand ), who stepped up to the plate in the presence of three PBB leaders whose chances of succeeding Taib as CM were rated better than his.

The three were deputy chief minister Alfred Jabu ( below, on right ), Housing Minister Abang Johari and Minister of Planning Awang Tengah Hassan ( below, on right ).

Before Taib was pressed two weeks ago – unsuccessfully it transpired - by federal BN chairperson and Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, with his deputy Muhyiddin awang tengah hassan alfred jabu press conference 180306 Yassin in tow for good measure, to quit before state polls, speculation was rife that Awang Tengah was being tapped by Taib as the likeliest person take over when the latter quits.

Umno is known to favor Abang Johari  ( below ), a PBB deputy president, as Taib’s successor but the CM is said to be averse; he reputedly prefers Awang Tengah.

But Taib Mahmud’s actual preference for a successor has intrigued parlor conversation for the better part of a decade at least.

bn candidates announcement pbb hq 030411 abang johari Cynics claim he relishes tantalizing a slew of candidates by giving each the impression he is the anointed one, a charade that generates a hampering, nervous anxiety among them, sufficient to keep them hopeful and acquiescent.

It is said that Adenan, intellectually head and shoulders above the competition, wearied of the game and in an acrimonious exchange with Taib just before the last state elections in May 2006, stormed out of the reckoning.

He cooled his heels the last few years, as the low-profile state assemblyperson for Tanjung Datu, in sprawling Sarawak’s southern extremity, content to indulge his taste for small scale agri-and-aquaculture.

A law graduate from Taib’s alma mater, University of Adelaide, Adenan stayed loyal to Taib despite having had a bruising argument or two with the CM.

Taib plucked him out of his pastoral reverie and brought him in as an adviser early last year.

After a few months of searching for ways to insinuate him into the succession sweepstakes, he made Adenan special adviser to the CM, a position Taib endowed with state cabinet rank.

Critics scoffed that it was just another permutation in Taib’s perennial game of musical chairs for aspirants to his position.

But when a few months ago he entrusted Adenan with the task of vetting the list of candidates that BN component parties were shaping to deliver, and then yesterday gave him the privilege of announcing the final selection, it was hard to downplay the erudite former state and federal cabinet minister’s chances of succeeding Taib.

The betting is that Taib will have to go – and soon too - even if Sarawak BN pulls off an emphatic victory in the state polls on April 16.

But by keeping the succession sweepstakes churning, Taib Mahmud gains room to maneuver a safe exit strategy.

 

TERENCE NETTO has been a journalist for close on four decades. He likes the occupation because it puts him in contact with the eminent without being under the necessity to admire them. It is the ideal occupation for a temperament that finds power fascinating and its exercise abhorrent.