By Sim Kwang Yang
When I was told that Baru Bian would be appointed as the new PKR Sarawak chief a couple of weeks ago, I was relieved.
The PKR Perak chief Mustapha Kamil Ayub was the PKR Sarawak Chief for a while, but that kind of stop-gap measure cannot be sustained for long. Sarawak PKR must be led by a Sarawakian leader.
I met Baru for the first time a few months ago in Kuching. I found him impressive, calm, and thoughtful. He told me then that he lost the Ba Kelalan seat by over three hundred votes only.
He mentioned the sum of his miniscule campaign funds. I was shocked. With that tiny war chest, he lost by a mere 300 votes. That is unthinkable in rural Sarawak constituencies. Another candidate would have lost his deposit and his pants.
PKR must now work hard to make sure Baru Bian win the next round; the meek people in Sarawak need his voice in the state assembly.
When Chee How finished his law course and was called to the bar, he told me he was going to work for Baru Bian, and I was glad. I have heard of this gentleman because of his very hard work in court fighting for the NCR land rights of Sarawak native communities.
Many years later, Chee How has become a senior lawyer and between him and Baru, they have well over 100 land cases in the Sarawak courts. They have won some significant landmark cases. Sarawak is a better place for Sarawakians because of lawyers like Baru Bian and Chee How.
Not many lawyers in Sarawak would take up their kind of land cases, because doing so means going up against the powerful state government and the many powerful logging and plantations companies.
Lawyers like Baru and Chee How must have a great deal of moral commitment, dedication, compassion, resilience, integrity, and legal knowledge. They enter their legal profession with a view for justice, and not just for profit. Sometimes, I wonder how they can survive financially.
I think Baru is the right man to lead PKR in Sarawak. He has the experience, the right orientation, and the strength of character to operate under great duress. I am told he is a team man, so he is unlikely to let his ego get in the way of building bridges across different groups within his party, and form alliance with the other opposition parties in Sarawak.
To be the party chief in a vast state in Sarawak is a tough job. I should know. I was one for a number of years. Half my time was to try to settle internal strife between different warring factions within the party.
It is important for Baru to assert the independence of the Sarawak PKR in its relation to the national PKR.
In my time, I made sure that the Sarawak party could select its line-up of candidates for all general elections, preferring the local branches to nominate their candidate first. I even got KL to empower me to sign the authorisation letters allowing the candidates to use the party symbol for election campaign purposes. My independence was not always welcome in KL.
Baru has his work cut out for him. I know there must be undercurrents of internal strife within the Sarawak PKR, with individuals and local warlords jostling for candidature and campaign funds. This happens in all political parties in Sarawak.
The price of leadership is that the top guy must have a stomach big enough to row a boat in – according to one old Chinese proverb. He must indeed have a cast-iron stomach, because he has to swallow a great deal of filth from his own rank and file. Sarawakians do not always deserve their genuinely good leaders.
The situation in Sabah PKR is much less reassuring. Jeffery Kitingan and Christina Liew have resigned from all party positions in protest over the new appointment of PKR chairmanship in their state.
I have helped campaign in Sabah a few times, including the time when Christina was standing for the by-election. I was told by the local party people that Sabah is different, and campaign tactics used elsewhere cannot be used in Sabah. Outsiders – including a Sarawakian like me – were reduced to spectators to a primitive form of electioneering.
Sabah is an even bigger crocodile pit than a bad crocodile pit like Sarawak. I think the political situation with the PKR there is going to be much worse than in Sarawak. Leaders there think of their turf more than the future of Sabahans. Personally, I don’t have very high opinion of Jeffery and Christina, but they probably have very low opinion of me anyway, so we are even.
That is bad news for people like me who would like to see a change of government in KL. Without significant opposition gains in these two Borneon states, it is very hard for Pakatan Rakyat to seize national power through a general election.
Meanwhile, I wish Baru Bian all the good luck in the world. Believe me, he will need plenty of it!
End
Jeffrey is now in talks with SAPP. As long as he and his supporters don’t join BN, BN has nothing to rejoice. It is not necessary for Sabah opposition to be part of PR to deny BN seats. Not being part of PR and perceived as being under the thumb of Peninsula people may make them more attractive to Sabahans.
Jeffrey-SAPP are unlikely to join BN and as long as they can deny BN seats they can play a role in helping PR seize power. Their MPs can help PR form the Federal govt by forming a coalition or being ‘PR friendly’. It’s not too far-fetch to imagine that PBS may even exit BN to team up with Jeffrey and SAPP to form a third force.
The good thing is that a third force in Sabah is unlikely to help BN form the Federal govt as BN will not tolerate a non-Umno dominated Sabah state govt. So SKY should not worry too much. PKR’s influence in Sabah will weaken but Sabah for Sabahans isn’t a bad thing.
Comment by Kenny — October 31, 2009 @ 12:32 AM |
Moves are supposedly ongoing to pave way for duo party system and that may crystallize. It’s good that Sabah as it appears now might add spice to the broth. Where the two party system in the US works it has its quirks. Whilst Japan and Germany and other places work out their coalition styles, different sets of problems can besiege them. In those places in both cases institutions have already been reasonably strengthened to aid process stability. We Malaysians must be tickled or damned as we face prospects of being able to bribe judges and the executives. Our Parliament, at the moment sounds like a whorehouse!
Where extreme tendencies in political beliefs prompt politicians to whet their appetites for more power people’s welfare must bear the brunt. And unsmooth progress will continue to jeopardize natural and national resources in wider distribution. And Marina and her kind will face
This just makes lives more difficult of course. Where education and health suffer in funds for development and greater planning for the future, the extremists run away with the money and plough it in more developed markets. When rationalizing, they say, “Bumiputra, argh? Sorry to say!” Other Malaysians will join the chorus.
If the HPV and A-H1N1 vaccines will jeopardize more Malaysian teenagers health and lives in future the struggle of honest labor gets more impeded and the rot gets stinkier! It means nothing to me, that Malaysia’s dream is Tunku Abdul Rahman’s. It means less to me that Najib wants to keep Tun Abdul Razak’s dreams in flames. Mahathir and Anwar’s dreams are not ours.
Many more than some of us would like to believe “that all people yearn for certain things: the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed; confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice; government that is transparent and doesn’t steal from the people; the freedom to live as you choose.”
No, that is not all we can think of. But more of it certainly will not be on somebody else’s wet dreams.
Comment by Ali Basah — October 31, 2009 @ 11:04 AM |
Oops! I’ve cut and pasted the wrote paragraph. That 2nd paragraph should read …
Comment by Ali Basah — October 31, 2009 @ 11:15 AM
forget about sabah? you kidding ah beng? dont you think sabahans deserves justice? after all, sabah faces greater problem than sarawak.
Comment by joss — October 30, 2009 @ 12:08 AM |
Forget about Sabah. It’s too complicated over there. I’ve travelled to Sabah for over 20 years in my work and believe me, Sabahans are difficult to read. If front of you they are so nice but once your back is turned, beware. Let’s hope that Baru Bian can survive in the PKR crocodile pond. Too many wannabe leaders and too many political rejects from the BN, all having their knives out. But if he can handle them, Sarawakians will be ready to change the state government and about time we do.
Comment by Ah Beng — October 29, 2009 @ 10:17 PM |
Yes, Sabah is susah! But the shit they have to grapple with at the UMNO messing up in Sabah, means we’re next! We already have some other shit to deal with. How do you like West malaysians selling out customary rights light for profit?
Comment by Mat Sambal — October 29, 2009 @ 11:29 PM |
Baru Bian it appears has the approval of the other PKR leaders, although it has not been clearly reported. That no PKR member has protested will have to affirm he has their blessings. I’ll bet some PKR members won’t know whether Baru is a new member or an old one or still a SNAP member. Such is politics. Leaders know best. It’s bad reasoning but will have to do for the time being
PKR has made lots of noises about party rules reforms and before those rules are in place we already have the display of power on who should be head of Sabah. There was the recent spate with Zaid followed by Jeffrey. No problem with Sarawak. Sarawakians are nice people. They even let Taib plunder the forest and together with his uncle gave away energy resources to UMNO.
If PKR cannot face leaders who can dissect issues meticulously and face the facts and play by the rules they speak of and face problems squarely, that is the testimony for change – within PKR. Not words, promises or show of righteousness. If leaders decide who leads, it doesn’t matter whether it’s UMNO or PKR or PAS or whoever, the work is half done. Too bad if East Malaysians aren’t people who all have college degrees to decide on their future. The Americans do and they put the babi Bush in the White House.
If Jeffrey Kitingan should not be the one to act on what he strongly believes is fair, will there be no one absolutely to attempt to do so in the future? If you believe in human dignity, Jeffrey cannot be the last man standing. He could also well be a grumpy old man. If PKR cannot face Jeffrey now, there will be others whose names will not be Jeffrey. They may be from Sabah, Sarawak or Malaya.
It is all right for PKR to insist on the fairness they believe in. Isn’t it all right for others to do so, too?
Comment by Mat Sambal — October 29, 2009 @ 9:45 AM |