Ahead of a highly anticipated PBB supreme council meeting where Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud is speculated to announce he would bow out, supporters have rallied to show opposition to such a move.

Some 100 members of the Angkatan Warisan Anak Sarawak, an organisation aligned to ruling party PBB, converged at the Petra Jaya entrance of the party headquarters  bearing banners and chanting slogans in support of Abdul Taib's continued tenure.

"Long live PBB, long live CM (chief minister)," they chanted.

Some of the banners read: "We the rural people of Sarawak fully support Abdul Taib Mahmud's leadership, continue to defend the rakyat", "We love Chief Minister Taib Mahmud" and "We want Taib Mahmud to complete the Score project to create 1.5 million jobs".

Score, or Sarawak Corridor or Renewable Energy, is a large scale development endeavour that includes the building of 12 dams, turning the state into a hub to attract high energy industries.

Abdul Taib arrived at 10.06am in a Rolls Royce to cheers from the youths as he was welcomed by top party leaders.

Speculation is rife that the 77-year-old, who would have served as Sarawak chief minister for a full 33 years next month, is planning to announce some form of transition at today's closed-door meeting.

Troops of journalists have notably gathered outside the headquarters in anticipation of an announcement.

Party stalwarts were tight-lipped as they marched into the headquarters, and it remains unclear as to how much information will be divulged today as another meeting with the Sarawak BN leadership has been scheduled for tomorrow.

Prior to the meeting, PBB leaders had insisted that the meeting's agenda will only be decided ad-hoc today.

Speculation on Taib's resignation was further fuelled over the fact that the term of state governor Abang Muhammad Salahuddin Abang Barieng ( left ) would be extended despite his ripe age of 92, but only until Feb 28.

This date, coupled with the timing of the weekend meetings, had sparked speculation that Taib will be changing roles and taking over as governor.

However, other sources argue that rumours of Taib's departure,  first front-paged on Berita Harian , had been orchestrated by Putrajaya in a bid to pressure the veteran politician.

During the 2011 Sarawak state polls, Taib had indicated that he would step down mid-term in "two to three years".

A controversy-plagued Taib

The comments came amidst pressure  on him to step down after Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin paid a call on Taib before the polls, with retirement in mind for the septuagenarian.

Putrajaya was concerned that the various corruption allegations plaguing Taib could hurt the BN in the state elections , but PBB succeeded in pulling off a clean sweep of all the 35 seats it  had contested.

However, his unpopularity among the Chinese community - which  describes him as "Pek Moh" (white hair) - saw component parties being hit by heavy losses.

BN controls 55 of the 71 seats in the state assembly.

The Swiss-based Bruno Manser Fund alleged that Taib had - through his family - accumulated US$15 billion in wealth during his tenure as chief minister.

NGO Global Witness had also released a video on March last year entitled, "Inside Malaysia's Shadow State", in which it secretly filmed Taib's relatives soliciting kickbacks and claiming that they had access to Taib for logging licences.

As result, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) commenced investigations against Taib, who was later caught on video calling the graft-buster as "naughty and dishonest".

The controversy-plagued Taib's withdrawal from active politics will be an opportune time for the ruling coalition to call for snap polls even though it is not due until 2016.

This possibility was fuelled by a Sinar Harian report that the state information department erroneously sent out an invitation for media coverage of a security briefing in preparation of the 11th Sarawak state elections.

It later clarified that the event to be  attended by Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was closed-door,  not meant for media coverage.

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