Wednesday, June 25

Cold feet reactions to Taib's suggestion

The “cold feet” reactions by Masing and Mawan to Abdul Taib’s suggestion that both PRS and SPDP upon their merger should consider joining PBB were really a slap on the face on the chief minister.

Masing said: “It needs a lot of thinking, rational thinking, and not emotional thinking” and added that a marriage was not something anyone should rush into and it should be no different for political parties although the prospect of having a well-to-do spouse was very enticing.

Mawan, on the other hand, wanted to take things step by step and the obvious step was to merge SPDP and PRS and if they could merge in a peaceful manner and they could become solid, the next step would be to go a step further in achieving solidarity of the BN government with regards to Bumiputra politics as envisaged by the chief minister.

“But you have to polish yourself first, you have to get yourself united and have a lot of common stand in a lot of things” said the SPDP president.

Taib’s suggestion stunned and startled many political observers and politicians as it was not so long ago that Taib vehemently rejected the applications made by MP Joseph Salang, MP Jawah Gerang, MP Aaron Dagang, State Assemblyman Gasbriel Adit and State Assemblyman Stanley Ajang to join PBB after they were rendered partyless with the death of PBDS in October 2004. I remember the partyless five, as they were popularly known, pleading and begging to join PBB and they waited for more than three years. And yet their applications were rejected. They then joined PRS and SPDP.

In fact all along, Taib and Dayak leaders in PBB did not want other Dayaks who were educationally better qualified to join PBB. Remember they rejected Daniel Tajem and his followers after they were expelled from SNAP in July 1983. There could be many reasons, but for the Malay/Melanau group, they did not want the Pesaka wing to be too strong otherwise it would pose a threat to the Malay/Melanau hegemony. As for Jabu, he did not want other Dayaks to over shadow his leadership. He prefers the Pesaka wing to be small. Enlarged Pesaka can mean less business opportunities and smaller cakes to be divided.

So why did Taib suddenly want PRS and SPDP to join PBB after they have merged? Was Taib really serious? Or was he being influenced by other events such as the political tsunami after the March 2008 elections, the expansion of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) to Sarawak or the promises made by PKR and DAP for a Dayak to be made the chief minister of Sarawak?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

can we depend/have the faith on such leaders?

Unknown said...

Taib is merely trying to confuse the Dayaks/Iban through his politics of manipulation similiar to the divide and rule tactic he has been espousing eversince he is in politic to attain and maintained his present political power based. I think in giving such replies, Masing and Mawan have just learned a bitter lesson in history to make them more realistic in their political thinking to accomodate the present much politically literate Dayaks/Iban.

Perhaps Taib suggestions was just a ploy to deceive the Dayak/Iban strong sentiments against the BN government as he new it was too magnanimous for resentment from them. It is an open secret, Taib is such a strong advocate of Machiavellian politics.

Unknown said...

"Discontent is the first necessity of progress." --Thomas A. Edison

Ruis Jugah said...

Jetty
You have raised a valid point pertaining to CM's funny statements - indeed the partyless 5have been begging days and nights applying to join PBB. I had a fair share of the toubles too - as I had personally followed (actually as a driver) some of these partyless YBs to meet some menteri here and there just to ganrner support to join PBB. But PBB was downright stubborn and "ngumba ke diri". Aku amat kasih meda sida Stanley Ajang and Gabriel Adit who had to stand as independents in the ends.