Taib’s ‘cocky’ boys irking Dayaks

Taib Mahmud may not have his 'fixed deposits' if his Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) elected reps continue to belittle the Dayaks.

KUCHING: Dayaks want respect! And Sarawak Barisan Nasional (BN) assemblymen who continue to ignore this fact face the threat of losing, not their heads, but their seats in the state election.

State Land Development Minister James Masing, who Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) president, warned that the “threat” to these seats was real and urged his BN colleagues to be wary.

“If the leaders are not respecful and sensitive to the Dayaks and ignore their wishes, then they will get angry.

“And angry Dayaks will lead to a second front and a loss of seats in the rural areas,” said Masing, a Dayak.

Masing’s “second front” was in reference to the Sibu wave which took the BN by surprise in the May 2010 parliamentary by-election.

BN lost its 24-year-long grip over Sibu when it failed to defeat the DAP in a tightly fought battle that saw political luminaries such as Lim Kit Siang and his son Guan Eng and Karpal Singh grace the campaign runup.

The loss, many observers agreed, was fuelled by resentment among the Chinese against Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s policies and their anger towards a “spineless” and “arrogant” Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP).

Masing said the same resentment and dissatisfaction among rural voters would cost BN to lose its “fixed deposits”.

Masing, it is learnt, was taking swipes at several of Taib’s Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) leaders who had irked the Dayak community with their cocky behavious and failure to bring promised infrastructural development to their respective constituencies.

“Dayakism” is facing a major revival in Sarawak and is greatly supported by NGOs and the opposition.

New faces

Speaking to reporters ewsmen yesterday, Masing said he was confident of winning all the nine seats allocated to Dayak-majority PRS, under the coalition deal.

The nine seats are Belaga, Balai Ringin, Batang Ai, Tamin, Bukit Begunan, Kakus, Baleh, Ngemeh and Pelagus.

Masing said the party was retaining all its incumbents except for the Ngemeh and Pelagus seats.

“For Ngemeh and Pelagus, we already have our candidates. The two young professionals have been working the ground,” he said.

Currently, Ngemeh is held by Gabriel Adit. Adit, who won the seat by a slim 549-vote majority, is now the chairman of Parti Cinta Malaysia (PCM). He has held the seat for the past three terms.

In 2006, he won the seat as an independent. He later joined PKR but that too did’t work out for him. He then quit PKR to join PCM.

The contentious Pelagus seat is held by Larry Sng.

Sng, who won the seat on a PRS ticket, is now party-less after Masing sacked him for insubordination two years ago.

Although Sng has hinted his interest in returning to PRS, Masing and his leaders have adamantly refused to take him back.

PRS has also refused to release Pelagus seat on any term to any of its coalition party members.

It has also expressedly stated its stand against other coalition party members, within the BN, accepting Sng into their fold. - FMT