When Dr Patau Rubis was assistant minister in the Sarawak Cabinet from 1987-1995, he was unable to run his thriving private medical clinic in Kuching. Among those he roped in to help him managed Klinik Sri Tongga was his cousin and a ENT specialist Dr Tiki Lafe.

Patau was a member of the Sarawak Cabinet under the Sarawak National Party (Snap) quota. Soon, he also brought Tiki into Snap and encouraged him to partake in active politics.

In 1995, Patau left the cabinet following longstanding and unresolved differences with Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud. Forced out of the BN, the Bidayuh doctor then established the opposition State Reform Party (Star) the following year.

However, Tiki did not join Patau in the opposition. He stayed put in Snap and remained loyal to the chief minister and the Sarawak BN.

Patau was both a state assemblyman (Tasik Biru) and a member of Parliament (Mas Gading) at the time he set up Parti Star. In the 1996 state election, Patau was defeated in Tasik Biru by Snap newcomer Peter Nansian.

Dr Tiki’s loyalty to the Sarawak BN paid off for him in 1999 when he was chosen to contest against his cousin, Dr Patau, in Mas Gading in the elections that year. That was the first time the two Bidayuh doctors and cousins squared it off in Mas Gading.

The March 8 polls will see the third contest between the two respected sons of the Bidayuh community in Bau, a satellite town 25km outside Kuching.

At the outset of the elections, there were talks that Dr Tiki, also deputy minister of regional and rural development, would be replaced. That Tiki was still on the BN-SPDP list, as one observer points out, bears testimony to the fact that someone in power and position wants this fight between cousins (and relatives) to continue.

He told Malaysiakini the reason why Tiki was chosen over several other senior Snap leaders to challenge Patau in 1999 was this ‘ambition’ to allow the Bidayuh cousins to fight and split their families. Cruel as that may be, he pointed out that this has always been the way some Sarawak leaders operate in order to exercise control over those they govern.

Come March 8, the constituents of Mas Gading will get to choose between two old foes and two independents.

But the real contest is between the two Bidayuh doctors as the independents are not likely to make much headway in the four-way bout.

On Sunday’s nomination day, Dr Tiki humbly told reporters that he was not taking any of his opponents lightly "because everybody was equally strong when it came to the ground".

He was quoted by the Borneo Post as saying that "one’s biggest mistake was to underestimate the strength of one’s opponents, and taking things for granted".

Tiki called on voters to turn up in full force as independents could also break up the BN votes.

For the record, Tiki defeated Patau in the 2004 general election with only a 2,712-vote majority.

Meanwhile, the Star president who is contesting on a Snap ticket for the second time has a grander plan in mind.

Declaring his mosquito party Star as the ‘new Snap’, Patau said all former Snap members would be inducted into Star should Snap lost its on-going legal battle against de-registration.

In the event that Patau wins Mas Gading in Round Three with his cousin, that could become a reality as a serving MP president will carry a lot of clout about this particular Sarawak’s bumiputra community.

Observers generally agree that this is the best chance for Dr Patau and Star to make a headway in Sarawak politics, principally due to what they describe as Dr Tiki's lacklustre performance over the past nine years.