Something doesn’t smell quite right

Taib Mahmud has everyone guessing as to when he will step down as chief minister, if at all.

The succession picture in Sarawak is getting increasingly murkier by the day. It appears that Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud, judging by his remarks at the 1Malaysia concert on Monday, isn’t going anywhere in a hurry.

He has second thoughts now, in his own words in the presence of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, about quitting after the April 16 polls. This explains Taib’s apparent lack of enthusiasm for Najib campaigning in Sarawak. In any case, why enter the fray if he’s quitting in the weeks or immediate months!

Scratch any possibility of him quitting in mid-term. There is no possibility of Deputy Chief Minister Alfred Jabu Anak Numpang stepping in as an interim chief minister before another Taib family member can be groomed to take over the crown in their private paradise. The interim idea looks like a definite non-starter even if Jabu wins his Layar seat this Saturday against a formidable challenge being mounted by Tedewin Ngumbang Datu, who quit Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) recently in a huff over Taib’s alleged mischief-making among Dayak-based parties.

Taib has in fact upped the ante since Monday and is staying on for a few more years. That will take him to another full term, assuming that he isn’t being presumptuous and wins the state election this Saturday.

There are no prizes for guessing what brought about Taib’s sudden change of heart. In an interview with TV3 last night, Taib disclosed that Najib has already chosen – speculated to be Abang Johari – as the next chief minister. The last person that Taib, as a Melanau Muslim and Dayak, would accept as chief minister is a Malay. That doesn’t mean either that he will allow a non-Melanau Dayak to be chief minister. The Melanau Mafia has an unenviable reputation for being mean, vicious and vindictive.

The disclosure on Najib’s choice during the TV3 interview was before Taib went on to reiterate that he wants the succession in Sarawak to be smooth, whatever that means. The Sarawak strongman was going all over the place on the issue of development and how it’s linked, again, with how long he stays on and when and who takes over from him.

Major complaint

His successor, it seems, must be “as smart as or even smarter than him”. This is not surprising since it comes from a kleptocrat like Taib who presides over the second poorest state in Malaysia and belabours under the misconception that he’s indispensable.

Taib is a Sarawakian first and foremost, and reading between the lines, it can be surmised that he along with his countrymen would not tolerate a situation where an Orang Malaya – even the prime minister – decides on the next chief minister of the state. This is also the major complaint in neighbouring Sabah where Najib has really no business dictating who should or should not be chief minister.

It’s the state constitution which determines who becomes chief minister of Sarawak. So, the more Najib screams that Taib is leaving sooner rather than later, the more he reiterates that he can’t leave just like that especially when he hasn’t finished his work, again whatever that means. Taib is more than a little suspicious that Najib seems to be too eager to get rid of him.

Both Najib and Taib are lying through their teeth on the succession problem in Sarawak. Najib thought that he can do a number on Taib and his dynasty, after the man leaves, and bring Umno to the state through Johari. The Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), like the United Sabah National Organisation (Usno), will make way for Umno Sarawak and will in turn either be dissolved or deregistered. All this will never happen since Taib refuses to go away dutifully as expected.

Taib has always been less concerned about Umno’s ketuanan Melayu mindset and its desire to foster proxy politics in the state through a local front than about his own political fortunes and the “independence” of Sarawak. This is one reason why Najib is dropping the fig leaf on proxy politics and has plans to install his party in the state. Another is his suspicion that in the event of a tie in Peninsular Malaysia, Taib would not hesitate to do business with the opposition alliance in return for a Pakatan Rakyat government in Putrajaya staying off his turf.

Najib remains supremely confident that Taib can be “persuaded” to cave in and flee with his tail between the legs. Najib’s secret weapon against Taib is the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) even as the latter has got the former’s wife, Rosmah, on his side as his lobbyist in Putrajaya with the enormous means at his disposal.

High-stakes games

If Najib refuses to take that as checkmate in the high-stakes game of political chess, poker and Russian roulette combined, he should think again.

Najib is no match for the eternal survivor in Taib and Abdul Rahman Ya’kub, his maternal uncle and predecessor. When push comes to shove, Taib, like Jeffrey Kitingan in Sabah, is more than capable of querying whether the Federation of Malaysia still exists given the departure of Singapore in 1965. The answers will more than surprise Putrajaya.

Najib has clearly been outwitted by Taib who pretended to go along to see where the former was headed on the succession issue. It’s more than a stalemate on the succession issue with Rosmah, for obvious reasons, on Taib’s side. Najib, hence, would have to drop his hare-brained scheme of expanding Umno to Sarawak on the ruins of PBB and the Taib dynasty.

Furthermore, he has to drop any notion that he can send the MACC – not that he’s wrong, but it’s too little too late – after Taib.

Employing the MACC against Taib at this late juncture – selective prosecution, selective persecution – would simply open up the Pandora’s Box itself and pave the way for the disintegration of the Federation of Malaysia in Sabah and Sarawak.