INTERVIEW Being a Sarawak political blue blood may have contributed to his rise in politics but 26-year-old Abdul Aziz Isa believes that the time has come for him to break away and chart his own path for change.

Abdul Aziz is a great-grandnephew of former Sarawak governor Abdul Rahman Ya’akub and he has been touted by his own boss, Sarawak DAP chairperson Chong Chieng Jen, as among those “being considered as candidates for semi-urban rural constituencies in Sarawak”.

So strong is this consideration that the national DAP publicity team is already pushing a media blitz for the youth, setting up press interviews with Abdul Aziz during his visit to Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

In an interview with Malaysiakini , Abdul Aziz said he was well on his way to continuing with the family legacy in PBB, when he helped his cousin campaign on the BN component party's ticket in the 2011 state election.

His late great-granduncle, Rahman, was president of PBB and Sarawak chief minister before he became the state's longest-serving governor.

Rahman ( photo ) was succeeded as governor, chief minister as well as PBB president by his nephew, Abdul Taib Mahmud.

And today, DAP is likely looking to expand its influence in a non-Chinese majority area in the state with a member of a fourth generation of the Sarawak political royal family.

The Sarawak state election must be called on or before June 20 next year and the Dewan Rakyat yesterday passed a motion that increased the number of state constituencies to 82.

'Cut my finger'

Abdul Aziz believes family background has nothing to do with his selection as a potential election candidate.

“Cut my finger off if I’m lying. When introducing me, the DAP never says, ‘let’s welcome the great-grandnephew of Abdul Rahman Ya’akub’.

“DAP is promoting me because I can raise issues like zakat, kalimah Allah.

"It brings a different impact when a Malay criticises how zakat is distributed,” said Abdul Aziz on perceptions that he is being paraded as yet another pedigree Malay DAP member.

He said it took a short stint of campaigning for his cousin in PBB during the 2011 Sarawak election that convinced him he was not meant to continue the family political legacy with the BN component party.

In fact, he is the first in his family to break away from the PBB path and to join the DAP.

"I believe if the PBB has been treating people equally, I won't have joined the DAP. I joined DAP because of my desire for change," Abdul Aziz said, noting that Malay leaders in the ruling party have been "inspired" by their counterparts in Umno when it comes to dealing with issues of race and religion.

Since joining the DAP, Abdul Aziz has been labelled as an "apostate" and "Chinese lackey" but he remains thankful that the Malays in Sarawak are still aware of the need to protect the sensitivities of the other races.

No parachute candidates

Abdul Aziz is coy about whether he will indeed be a candidate in the coming Sarawak state election, but believes he has “invested” a lot of effort to build up a support base in Tupong, a Malay/Melanau-majority state constituency under the Petrajaya parliamentary seat.

“Most of the candidates, or potential candidates of the DAP in Sarawak are from the state and we are focused in our areas. We don’t go down to find the issues only after we have been announced as candidates.

“You should start from now. This is your investment. If every single day you go down and resolve one issue, you will have hundreds of votes ‘saved up’ by the time the election is called,” Abdul Aziz ( photo ) said.

In this case, the Petrajaya DAP Youth publicity secretary added, his main focus was to continue speaking up on issues affecting the Malay-Muslim communities, among them being the distribution of zakat through Sarawak Baitulmal.

“Don’t simply say I can contest and then wait for funds from the party. RM70,000, RM100,000… you should not try to look for issues (to resolve) only when you are about to contest.

“Now should be time to start resolving the people’s issues. This is how you invest. Not by using money,” he said.

Abdul Aziz said he also believes that it is very important for an aspiring candidate to always be seen in the area, rather than to show up only during the election period.

“There is no such thing as an anti-West Malaysian (sentiment) but if you want to be an elected representative in Sarawak, then you have to be based in Sarawak.

“Before this, I had offers to work in Penang and Kuala Lumpur, but I said no. Two years is not a long time and after that I can decide whether to continue (in politics) or not,” he said.

Abdul Aziz started out as an intern with the Sarawak DAP office in 2013 and was later appointed as Chong’s special assistant and also tasked to run the party’s service centre in Tupong.

Chong had at the time been reported as saying that DAP was keen to field a candidate in Tupong, despite the seat being traditionally contested by PKR.

Seat squabbles

Since then, Abdul Aziz admitted that he has had public disagreements with the PKR leadership in Sarawak with regard to criteria for its aspiring candidates.

“I personally do not want the political scene in Sarawak, especially for Pakatan, to be made up of candidates who are fielded only because ‘the BN does not walk free’ (and win uncontested).

“Don’t field candidates whom the voters have never seen before. Who does not know anybody on the ground? This is what has caused us to argue,” Abdul Aziz said.

On this, he was referring to a public spat with PKR Sarawak information chief Vernon Aji Kedit.

Abdul Aziz said the basis of their argument was on PKR’s declaration that it would be going into the next Sarawak election on a “status quo” basis.

He claimed PKR failed to show that it would have enough credible candidates to field in the 49 seats it had contested for during the last state election.

Ties between the two parties have been tested because of competing claims over seats, especially following the launch of DAP’s Impian Sarawak campaign shortly after GE13, seen by certain quarters within PKR as DAP’s attempt to encroach into its areas.

In 2011, PKR won three out of 49 state seats it contested, while the DAP won 12 out of 15 seats, almost all in urban Chinese-majority areas.

But with his boss, Chong, predicting the Sarawak state election in three months, Abdul Aziz seems to realise that seat squabbles would do little good.

Especially in an area like Tupong, where PBB's reign has been uninterrupted.

Seat negotiations between PKR and DAP are now under way, he added. "Now, we are okay."