It is official now: Parti Pesaka Bumiputra Bersatu's (PBB) former deputy president Abang Abu Bakar is to challenge Chief Minister and PBB president Abdul Taib Mahmud in the Asajaya state constituency near Kuching in the forthcoming state elections.

And that is not all - his group will contest at least 42 predominantly bumiputra seats out of the 62 state seats that will be up for grabs.

Abang Abu resigned from PBB two years ago after losing the fight to retain his deputy president's post in the party and after he was not renominated to stand in the Kuala Rajang parliamentary constituency. As a result he was dropped from the federal cabinet as defence minister.

He had been accused by Taib of working behind the back of party leaders in trying to undermine PBB by extending Umno's influence in Sarawak. His supporters allegedly had gone on a membership recruitment drive for Umno and this had made Taib and other PBB leaders extremely unhappy.

Abang Abu, son of the late prominent Sarawak Malay in the early 1960s Dato Bandar Haji Mustapha, one of the signatories to the Malaysia Agreement and who died soon after he was appointed a federal minister then, is married to a member of the Negri Sembilan royal family, Tunku Maziah. He also served at one time as speaker of Sarawak State Assembly.

After he came back in the late 1960s after studies in overseas, he was made executive secretary of the then Sarawak Alliance, the predecessor to the Sarawak Barisan Nasional. He was also the first branch manager in Sarawak of Malaysia National Insurance.

When Abdul Rahman Yakub was chief minister (1970-1981), he probably felt obliged to put Abang Abu in a senior party position and to an important government post. After a term as speaker, Abang Abu Bakar took part in the parliamentary elections, stood as BN candidate for Kuala Rajang, and won. He was subsequently appointed to the federal cabinet.

Abang Abu had generally been seen as aloof and did not maintain a close rapport with most of senior party colleagues. It was eventually felt that he had lost touch, and made only occasional visits to his own constituency.

Out of favour

After he was seen to be falling out of favour with the party's top leadership, talks emerged that he was actively canvassing for Umno to come to Sarawak, a controversial issue, because of its possible implications for the state.

When PBB held its party elections in 1998 he lost so badly in a three-cornered fight for the deputy president's post that it was clear to all and sundry he had not just lost but had also been marginalised within the party. Months later, he wrote to PBB secretary-general, Leonard Linggi Jugah, to tender his resignation from the party, and said that he would not consider returning to PBB.

Finally, the die had been cast, and Abang Abu started building up his own group and campaigning openly against the BN, especially Taib Mahmud's PBB.

In a reaction to news that Abang Abu was going to challenge Taib in Asajaya, PBB senior leader Bolhassan Di, who is an assistant minister, lambasted his former deputy president, saying that his action was an affront to the memory of his late father who had worked for Malay/ bumiputra unity.

Abang Abu told reporters during an open house in Kuching that he was hopeful his group would be able to win several seats in the coming state elections. His target is clearly PBB seats, especially in Malay and Melanau areas where he thinks there is a groundswell of support for anti-Taib forces.

Bolhassan said that Abang Abu should not take on someone like the chief minister who had done so much for Sarawak's progress.

His party's senior vice president Adenan Satem, the state minister of agriculture and food industries and a potential successor as chief minister after Taib, said he would not make any comment for the time being.

Taib too refrained from mentioning anything about it during a Hari Raya gathering in Miri. He only mentioned what he described as some power-crazy Muslims trying to grab power, referring apparently to PAS which has been trying to make inroads also into PBB Muslim areas.

Acting as spoiler

Although Keadilan has described Abang Abu's group as more of a spoiler than anything else, there is definitely concern within some quarters within PBB, especially the Malays. Firstly, the former defence minister still has some support, especially among the older Malay group, people who were closely identified with his late father or with the now defunct Parti Negara Sarawak (Panas), which the late Dato Bandar Haji Mustapha led, before its merger with another Malay-based party, Berjasa, to form Parti Bumiputra in the 1960s.

The concern is that the Abang Abu's group will nimble away the crucial Malay votes from PBB to give the opposition, especially Keadilan, victory in predominantly Malay seats.

Abang Abu's group have enough of financial resources to make more than a nuisance of themselves. He has interests in timber, and a family business with investments in a number of areas. According to political observers, his group may be financially better off than any of the other opposition parties.

Abang Abu's campaign will be more of a personal nature, directed as it were at the leadership of Taib Mahmud, who he is now blamed for the apparent division within PBB, the backbone of the Sarawak BN. He also wants to portray himself as the salvation for Sarawak Malays, who he and other opposition Malay leaders say are being marginalised in Taib's Sarawak.

Even though a number of PBB Malay leaders may share the same sentiments, they all say that is not good enough reason to forsake PBB like what Abang Abu did after he lost the party elections and was not renominated to stand in Kuala Rajang. They still feel that the better way to effect any change is within the party that they have all built together since the early days.

Astute politician

But Taib Mahmud is more than an astute politician. He clearly understands what is going on, but chooses to say as little as possible in public, preferring to leave much of the talking to some of his party boys. He also has a strong grip on the party, and still commands a lot of respect and confidence from his colleagues both in the cabinet and the party.

Keadilan's Dominique Ng Kim Ho, a popular local politician and a likely candidate in the Padungan state constituency in Kuching, does not think Abang Abu's group will make much impression.

In an interview with malaysiakini , he pointed to the performance of Bujang Bakar, an Abang Abu's supporter, who stood as an independent in the Kota Samarahan parliamentary constituency. Bujang Bakar, a popular whip boy in Sarawak's many years of election story, polled only a few hundred votes.

"That would be a reasonable way to gauge Abang Abu's group in this coming election," he said, adding that all the same by joining the fray the former PBB leader would only be giving the BN a further advantage.