Ngumbang faction eyes six Pesaka state seats

Joe Fernandez

Former Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) deputy information chief Tedewin Ngumbang Datu has ruled out joining the Sarawak National Party (Snap).

Instead, he will spearhead a network of strong independents to wrest six state seats from Pesaka, the Dayak wing of the ruling Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB).

Ngumbang will tentatively offer himself in Layar, a seat held by Deputy Chief Minister Alfred Jabu Anak Numpang. He declined to reveal the other five seats.

“We have nothing against Snap,” said Ngumbang yesterday at the Kuala Lumpur CityTel, Mid-Valley MegaMall. “In fact, I am here in KL with a Snap delegation headed by its advisor Daniel Tajem.”

The one-to-one strategy, he said, doesn’t necessarily apply to every seat in Sarawak, instead he sees many three-cornered or more fights where straight clashes would not make for good strategy.

This was given the fact that besides ethnic seats, there were marginal and mixed seats, he added, and urban ones as well to make up the numbers with the rural seats.

The former PRS senior activist, a close confidant of party president James Jemut Masing, was explaining why he will not be signing up with the resurgent Snap anytime soon, if at all.

Hard task ousting entrenched figures

He said he was in Kuala Lumpur at the invitation of Snap for a strategy session on Tuesday with other Third Force elements.
However, he did not participate in the strategy session, but involved in separate ones with various groups.

“Jabu and his Pesaka group have been the stumbling block for the Dayaks for so long. We are determined to get rid of him this time,” said Ngumbang on his accord struck in Kuala Lumpur with Third Force elements.

He conceded that “getting rid of Jabu” (right)from the political scene in Sarawak was an idea which conveniently suited the politics of Taib and his maternal uncle Abdul Rahman Yakub “but this is something that only matters after the next state election”.

“It must be accepted that if something happens to Taib before the next state election, it’s Jabu who will become chief minister whether Rahman Yakub likes it or not,” said Ngumbang.

“No one believes that Taib would step down after the next state election and give way to Jabu as an interim chief minister.”

Looking ahead, he hopes to work closely with PRS besides Snap in the post-state election scenario.

“If we add our six seats to the nine that PRS expects to win, we can strike a better bargain for the people,” said Ngumbang. “But that does not mean that PRS or Masing is behind us. They are not.”

He admits that he is still on good terms with Masing.

Final chapter being written?

“In fact, he (Masing) just called me a while ago,” he said. “PRS is also in town. They met with a top Barisan Nasional leader yesterday. This afternoon they are meeting another leader before flying home. Maybe some things are brewing.”

Touching on the Taib factor affecting his ties with Masing, Ngumbang claimed that the Sarawak Chief Minister can no longer be relied upon to return the 31 parliamentary seats in the state to the BN.

“Najib now knows that Taib controls less than half the 31 parliamentary seats in the state,” he said Ngumbang.. “He (Taib) can only claim to control the state seats which doesn’t interest Putrajaya at all.”

There are 71 seats in the Sarawak state assembly. Thirty-five of these seats will be allocated to PBB, as in the past, 19 to the Sarawak United People’s Party (Supp), nine to PRS and eight to the Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (Supp).

Supp lost eight seats to the opposition at the last state election in 2006. In addition, SPDP lost one seat to a “PRS independent”.

The last election results showed that there were 12 marginal state seats in Sarawak. Another 15 seats can be considered predominantly urban and of these eight are overwhelmingly Chinese. The rest of the 15 are mixed seats.

There are 29 Dayak seats and the rest either Melanau, both Muslim and non-Muslim, or Malay.