Dynasty politics in Sarawak: Like father, like son

Pak Bui

It never ceases to amuse me, how the top dogs like to rear their pups to sit in their chairs in future, like a little Children’s Political Party.

Malaysia Today’s recent feature on the PBB Youth reminded us all of the leading roles played in the party by children of ministers.

Gerald Rentap Jabu

Gerald Rentap Jabu, son of deputy chief minister Alfred Jabu, probably has the most grandiose name in Sarawak politics. Strictly speaking, his name ought to be Gerald Rentap Alfred, if the standard Iban practice of using the patronymic holds true. Other suggestions for names have been proposed, but are not suitable for publication.

Gerald and his sister Umang Nangku Jabu are fabulously wealthy board members of construction company Tintingmas (awarded stacks of government contracts in Kapit and elsewhere, according to the Pengayau blog), Sarawak Plantation Bhd (a vehicle of Jabu-nomics “development” that takes land away from native owners, and then offers them “employment” with Indonesian labourer wages), and other cash cows.

The Iban folk hero Rentap fought for the independence of his Iban kin, while our modern-day equivalent endorses the practice of institutionalised slavery, as a replacement for owning one’s own land.

It remains to be seen whether Alfred Jabu’s patented posture of an inclined head at an improbable angle with a fixed smile, the attitude he adopts each time he is in the same office compound as chief minister Taib Mahmud, is passed on genetically to his son Rentap.

Sulaiman Taib

Another prominent member of the Spoilt Brats’ Club is Sulaiman Taib, son of the chief minister. He evidently lacks the wisdom of Solomon, as suggested by the stories of him failing to attend board meetings as chairman of Bank Utama. He has the distinction of being the first chairman of a bank to have been removed by Bank Negara for hopeless ineptitude.

Press reports of him beating his wife Anisa Chan and attempting to strangle Avaa Vanja Ramli, who referred to him as her “boyfriend”, have cemented his reputation as a pathetic misogynist.

A recent Sarawak Report article on Sulaiman pointed out that he had asked his father to buy him the Bugatti race-car factory. It quoted a hilarious Bugatti Review article by a former collegemate, describing Sulaiman as a boy racer while he was “studying” in San Francisco, and calling Sulaiman “Malaysian Monarchy”.

Abdul Aziz Adenan

Abdul Aziz Adenan is son of the pseudo-minister Adenan Satem. Adenan fell from grace after he insulted the Iban; among other offences, he started his speeches with sneers about the traditional Iban chant of “hoo-haa”.

But Taib has now rescued Adenan from obscurity and lavished him with taxpayers’ money, by appointing him as a cabinet member for public relations: Minister for Spin, you might say.

Visitors to Adenan Satem’s home have reported that he owned many bookshelves lined with serious tomes. The expensive-looking books were bound in heavy leather, and embossed with gilt lettering. But on closer inspection of the books, it became clear that the pages had never been cut and the books had never been read – they were simply decorations, like the mock-royal furniture and the shiny trinkets on show elsewhere in the room.

Given the depth of intellectual learning in the Adenan Satem household, it is only to be expected that Abdul Aziz is now PBB Yoof information chief. Book learning, respect for scholarship, or even basic information should never be a requirement to be appointed a BN information chief.

PBB Yoof have chosen Abdul Aziz to set up a crack cybertrooper team, the New Media Unit, to counter the widespread impact of news portals and blogs in discrediting PBB and the BN.

“We do not go in for character assassination but want to give a clearer picture of government policies to counter the opposition’s claims and misconceptions,” Bernama quoted Abdul Aziz as saying.

Sadly, every time Abdul Aziz makes a public statement, he betrays his inordinately tenuous claim on credibility, and performs character assassination on himself: a kind of intellectual hara-kiri.

We can now reveal that the PBB Yoof New Media Unit has been given an enormous budget allocation to upload videos of RTM prime-time news onto PBB websites, in a noble campaign to combat anti-Taib and anti-BN news on the internet.

It has also been rumoured that the videos invariably begin with the catchphrase “Chief Minister Pehin Sri Datuk Patinggi Haji Dr Abdul Taib Mahmud today said…” PBB Yoof has reported dozens of hits on their RTM news bulletin websites, mostly from a couple of hired help “cybertroopers” clicking on their site repeatedly.

Still, most of us will agree that none of these young men, the Flower of PBB Yoof, should be blamed for the sins of their fathers. They are, after all, only trying to carve out their own little piece of Sarawakian history. Like father, like son. - Hornbill Unleashed