Another 'annus horribilis' for Taib By Keruah Usit

ANTIDOTE Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud raised eyebrows, and a few laughs, when he lost his temper very visibly on Dec 17 last year. A reporter asked him in passing about NGO allegations of corruption and calls for his arrest.

Eyewitnesses say Taib yelled “That’s a lie!” and then left the ‘Halal Transformation’ promotion he had graced with his appearance. His bodyguard later returned, and demanded to know which newspaper the reporter was from.

“Malaysiakini,” was the reply, to smiles all around, since all the reporters gathered there were well aware there were no Malaysiakini staff present.

One senior journalist later said that the offending question had come from an Umno-owned daily, Utusan Malaysia, adding that the reporter “is from Peninsular Malaysia and I think his days in Sarawak are numbered”.

Two days earlier, Taib had inexplicably cancelled the traditional press conference following his weekly state cabinet meeting.

Four days earlier, Swiss Penan advocacy NGO, the Bruno Manser Fund (BMF), had reported that Taib’s family members own more than RM1.46 billion assets in Malaysian companies, and even more in foreign lands. International NGOs called for graft charges to be brought agains Malaysia’s most enduring chief minister, and 13 of his family members.

Since this tantrum, Taib has been keeping his head down, perhaps anxious that he might lose it again. In his Christmas and New Year message, he contented himself with platitudes about hydroelectric dams and the so-called Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy, lamenting that “we must stay united and should not be distracted by political bickering and arguments over petty issues which do not benefit anybody”.

Taib’s outburst illustrates the shifting sands beneath his feet. Once, he was unchallenged and imperious, enjoying the unquestioning support of Umno leaders such as Dr Mahathir Mohamad, as long as he ensured a steady supply of BN parliamentarians from Sarawak.

Now Taib faces allegations of corruption online, documented carefully in excoriating detail. The mainstream media cannot hide the florid extravagance of his family’s foreign wealth. Even the Umno-controlled media cannot feign indifference to the story, although they have been directed to keep a lid on their interest.

Efforts to embellish Wikipedia entries, and to sponsor pro-Taib stories online and on international news channels, have backfired, and exposed Taib to worldwide ridicule.

The coming year promises more humiliation for Taib, another annus horribilis, (horrible year), to rival any among his three decades in charge.

Despite Taib’s travails, he is still expected to lead Sarawak’s BN into the upcoming general election, and to deliver more than two-thirds of the state’s 31 parliamentary seats, thanks to the impoverished rural vote bank.

This would bolster premier Najib Abdul Razak’s hopes of retaining power and of making a stab at regaining a two-thirds majority at federal level. Such a victory would allow Najib to stave off challenges to his leadership from within his party, Umno.

Najib has not disguised his distaste for the allegations of corruption surrounding Taib, but needs to keep the chief minister in place, until Najib can consolidate his own hold on power.

PBB factions restrained by Taib

On the home front, Taib has no serious challenger within his own ruling party, Parti Pesaka Bumiputera (PBB). He has been ruthless and efficient enough to suppress  rivals within PBB, and Najib knows that any attempt to engineer a coup against Taib within PBB would almost certainly be futile.

Taib clearly intends to remain ‘first among unequals’ for as long as he can, so that he can ease his son, Abu Bekir, into position to continue his family dynasty. Another son, Sulaiman, defied him and withdrew from politics.

In the unlikely event that Taib steps down, as he has repeatedly promised, he will surely want to become Governor. This would ensure legal immunity against prosecution by the anti-graft authorities, if his ties with Umno sour further.

In preparation for his eventual retirement or death - men at some time, but not all, are masters of their fate - Taib appears to have made plans to install a proxy as chief minister, while Abu Bekir (left) gets a leg up the slippery pole of power.

Leading candidates for a Goh Chok Tong-like stopgap chief minister include the fawning Alfred Jabu, the deputy chief minister, and the plodding Awang Tengah Ali Hassan, a close friend of Taib’s powerful sister Roziah.

Even so, in the eyes of Taib’s rivals in PBB, Taib’s advancing age (76 in May) throws up the possibility of a power grab: ‘While there’s death, there’s hope’, as a Sicilian novelist once wrote.

A feverish and destructive power struggle would certainly erupt if Taib dies in office. Alfred Jabu, Awang Tengah, long-suppressed PBB deputy president Abang Johari Openg and ambitious land minster James Masing would all tussle to replace him. Taib’s succession plans, always kept tentative in order to keep his competitors off balance, might then go awry.

The PBB faces the prospect of a divisive battle between Alfred Jabu’s Dayak/Melanau faction, and Abang Johari’s Malay faction. Thanks to Taib’s iron grip, the PBB has been spared the convulsions that grip all political parties sooner or later: Umno in 1987 and 1997, the DAP in 1998, PAS in 2011, and Sarawak BN components PRS, SUPP and SPDP in recent years. But a split in PBB is a real possibility if Taib leaves office unexpectedly.

Life after Taib

Taib will, of course, one day be replaced. Respected political observors wonder whether Sarawak BN can hold together if Taib were to be replaced suddenly. In their eyes, a break-up would be a tremendous boost for Sarawak’s political future.

But new and difficult questions arise, even if Taib leaves the scene.

Can the moribund state of participatory politics in rural communities be resuscitated? Many Sarawakian communities are insular, poorly educated and politically illiterate. Many have been comprehensively brainwashed by their feudal political leaders. How readily will a plural democracy be embraced?

How will Sarawak shrug off a century and a half of benign neglect by the Brookes, and half a century of political patronage and suppression of dissent by the BN?

The puzzle of the ship of Theseus is relevant to Sarawakians, and therefore to Malaysians, for the fate of all Malaysians rests on the voters of Sarawak and Sabah.

In this ancient paradox, Athenians dismantled the ship of Theseus, replacing each decaying plank with a new, but otherwise identical plank. Once all the planks had been renewed, the ship’s outward appearance was unchanged - but did it remain the same ship?

In Sarawak, Taib has built up an elaborate power structure by playing off ethnic groups against one another, and by creating a network of crony capitalism and dependency on the Big Man in power.

If Taib goes, the existing system of political patronage will survive. If Taib is replaced, others will take his place, and the ship of state will survive in its current, corrupt form. In Sarawak’s case, the identity of this decaying ship appears set to remain unchanged.

Civil society, and Pakatan Rakyat, need to work cohesively and creatively to overcome the money politics and inertia that pervades traditional Sarawak politics.

Political education, improvement of access to information, real engagement with the grassroots, and the use of Sarawak’s petroleum resources to establish basic services like decent clinics and schools, treated water and electricity in all communities are essential.

A handful of elected Pakatan representatives, including Baru Bian, Chiew Chiu Sing and See Chee How, have made a good start on this project. But Taib’s legacy will undoubtedly outlive him, and may outlive us all, unless we adopt a new approach to lift Sarawak from despair.

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KERUAH USIT is a human rights activist - ‘anak Sarawak, bangsa Malaysia’. This weekly column is an effort to provide a voice for marginalised Malaysians. Keruah Usit can be contacted at keruah_usit@yahoo.com