PKR candidates for the 2011 election

4 April 2011

(The story is first published by Free Malaysia Today)

KUCHING: Sarawak Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) today announced an assortment of professionals, businessmen and former high ranking civil servants as its candidates, which are described by PKR Deputy President Azmin Ali as the “best” candidates to fight the State Barisan Nasional.

Among the 47 candidates announced include medical doctors, PhD holders, lawyers, engineers, accountants, businessmen and former senior civil servants.

“With these candidates, we will spring major surprises in the coming election and we hope they will be able to save Sarawak and Sarawakians from serious and rampant corruption in the system of Sarawak government.

“I feel happy because these candidates proposed by the state leadership appear to be the candidates with integrity and credibility,” he said, pointing out that PKR will not put candidates in Pakan, Marudi and Jemoreng out of respect for the spirit of Pakatan Rakyat.

Asked on the position of Sarawak National Party, Azmin said: “In our last meeting SNAP is so persistent that it wants to contest in 27 majority constituencies, never giving us any space for negotiation.

“They also want PKR Iban candidates to contest using SNAP ticket. Surely this cannot be considered because PKR is a multiracial party, representing not only Melanau, Malays, Chinese, but also Bidayuhs,Ibans, Murut and Kadayans,” he said.

He said that both SNAP and PKR mutually agreed that the two parties have to base their candidates on the ‘winnability’ factors such as credibility of the candidates.

“On that score, I think PKR candidates are the best and the ones that can spring up surprises.

“However, we leave it to the people of Sarawak to make a decision on April 16,” he added.

The full list of PKR candidates:

N1 Opar – Boniface Willy Anak Tumek
N2 Tasik Biru – John Tenewi Nuek
N4 Pantai Damai – Wan Zainal Abidin Bin Wan Senusi
N5 Demak Laut – Ali Hossen Bin Abang
N6 Tupong – Baharuddin Mokhsen
N7 Samariang – Zulrusdi Bin Mohamad Dol
N8 Satok – Ahmad Nazib Bin Johari
N11 Batu Lintang – See Chee How
N14 Asajaya – Arip Bin Ameran
N16 Bengoh – Willie Anak Mongin
N17 Tarat – Peter Ato Anak Mayau
N18 Tebedu – Christopher Anak Kiyui
N19 Kedup – Lainus Anak Andrew Luwak
N21 Simunjan – Mashor Bin Hossen
N23 Lingga – Abg. Ahmad Arabi bin Abg Bolhassan
N25 Balai Ringin – Ibi Anak Udding
N26 Bukit Begunan – Jimmy Lim @ Jimmy Donald
N28 Engkilili – Marudi @ Barudi Anak Mawong
N29 Batang Air – Nicholas Bawin Anak Anggat
N30 Saribas – Abang Zulkifli Abang Engkeh
N31 Layar – Stanny Embat Pharoh Anak Laja
N32 Bukit Saban – Jerah Anak Engkiong @ Edward Jerah
N33 Kalaka – Mohd Yahya Bin Abdullah
N34 Krian – Ali Anak Biju
N35 Belawai – Abdul Wahab Bin Abdullah
N36 Semop – (to be announced later in Sibu)
N37 Daro – Jamaludin Bin Ibrahim
N42 Meluan – John Brian Anthony Anak Jeremy Guang
N43 Ngemah – Aris Anak Alap
N44 Machan – Chen Nguk Fa
N49 Nangka – Norisham Mohamed Ali
N50 Dalat – Sylvester Ajah Subah @ Ajah Bin Subah
N51 Balingian – Suriati Binti Abdullah
N52 Tamin – Mengga Anak Mikui
N53 Kakus – Paul Anyie Raja
N54 Pelagus – Edward Sumbang Anak Asun
N56 Baleh – Bendidang Anak Manjah
N57 Belaga – Basah Kesing @ Ali Basak Kesing
N58 Jepak – Abdul Jalil Bin Bujang
N60 Kemena – Benard Binar Bayang Anak Radding
N61 Bekenu – Ishak Bin Mahwi
N62 Lambir – Zolhadiah Binte Suboh
N65 Senadin – Michael Teo Yu Keng
N67 Telang Usan – Harrison Ngau Laing
N69 Batu Danau – Lau Liak Koi
N70 Ba’Kelalan – Baru Bian
N71 Bukit Sari – Japar Bin Suyut

Is SPDP’s Shield going to be broken?

Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) is heading towards a big trouble when five of its elected representatives and three members of the supreme council are abandoning the party and are applying to join Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS), another member of the Barisan Nasional (BN).

The five are State Assemblyman for Tasik Biru, Peter Nansian, the State Assemblywoman for Bekenu Rosey Yunus, the State Assemblyman for Marudi, Sylvester Enteri, State Assemblyman for Batu Danau, Paulus Gumbang and the MP for Mas Gading Dr. Tiki Lafe and three supreme council members – George Garai, Peter Gani and Eda Egar.

They want to join PRS under the pretext of merger so that their “transfer” to PRS will be smooth. More are expected to join them. The “group of eight” is aptly applying the SPDP principle – "Sapa Pedis Dulu Pansut".

But SPDP deputy president Peter Nyarok in a statement today has taken to task the group led by Datuk Peter Nansian for acting on their own accord without the sanction of SPDP for hastening and negotiating the merger with Parti Rakyat Sarawak.

“The group needs to be reminded that SPDP has already appointed a committee under my chairmanship,” Nyarok said, stressing that the committee has to work jointly with the committee from PRS to discuss and chart out the roadmap for the merger.

The chairman of the PRS’s appointed committee for the merger was the late Datuk Dublin Unting Ingkot and is now replaced by Dato Billy Abit Joo.

The joint-committee, co-chaired by the two chairmen, has met three times and to date it has shown progress, although a lot more areas have to be covered and resolved.

“The wishes and views of party members at branch and divisional levels must be taken into account and respected before any major decision such as the proposed merger can be made.

“SPDP wishes to reiterate that no individuals or groups other than the appointed Merger Committee are authorized to speak or negotiate on matters relating to the merger on behalf of SPDP.

“Those refusing to comply with this procedure are deemed to be acting on their own accord and SPDP does not recognize their action,” said Nyarok.

”It must be acknowledged that the merger is a complex and tedious process as it involves looking into the interests and sentiments of leaders and members of both political parties.

“It is a process that cannot be forcibly hurried by some individuals who fail to see the big picture and are not able to operate according to the order and discipline of their party,” he said.

Background to the crisis

It is indeed a pity that SPDP which broke away from Sarawak National Party (SNAP) in 2002 is facing a similar problem – all due to big towkays. During SNAP’s crisis, the “gang of nine” as the group was then known walked out from a CWC meeting when the meeting decided to expel Tiong King Sing from the party. Ironically, the “gang of nine” who was unhappy with the decision to expel Tiong was led by William Mawan who later formed what is now known as SPDP.

This time the “Group of eight” was not happy with the party president’s decision to replace Sylvester Enteri with Nelson Balang as secretary-general after the president did not honour his promise to maintain status quo in the party prior to the party’s triennial general assembly. Initially Balang refused to accept the appointment, as he knew that his appointment might cause a split in the party. But after a week of persuasion, he finally agreed.

It was also understood that the president wanted Kilat Briak, a prominent lawyer who hails from Saratok to be appointed as secretary-general. But Nyarok vehemently opposed it as he did not want Kilat to be too strong in the party. Nyarok does not want Mawan to groom Kilat to replace him in the Krian constituency. Nyarok, the sources said, wants his son-in-law to replace him perhaps in the coming state election.

But for the “group of eight” Enteri’s termination as secretary-general is a mere excuse. The problem in the party has been brewing up for the past one year or so especially when the president has allegedly failed to perform as a leader such as not keeping his promises made to some senior members of the party as well as not having a mind of his own; he listens too much to one man, the man who treated every member of the supreme council of the party as small children.

And during the last TGA, the man really showed his authority when he made decisions on behalf of the president such as deciding the list of the president’s men as well as the list of SPDP youth. When anyone questioned him, he shouted at him as if he was a beggar.

Mawan has been reminded about these insults, but he ignored them. Now he is paying the price of not listening to the party members. And the “gang of eight” has made up their mind to abandon SPDP and join PRS. They had first informed Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud. It is understood the two leaders seemingly agreed with their decision.

All the Dayak-based parties have shields as their symbols. And we have seen by now how the symbols of Dayak-based parties - the Shield of Sarawak National Party and the Shield of Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) being broken; and how the Shield of Pesaka absorbed into Parti Bumiputra and how the Shield of PRS was almost broken. Is the Shield of SPDP going to be broken as a result of the current crisis? – The Broken Shield

Source: http://www.thebrokenshield.blogspot.com/

Who are the "political scorpions"?

The other point that I did not include in my Malaysiakini story (see my story below this article) on the SPDP press conference on 18 July was that Mawan was blaming the Dayaks for the disunity that we are in today, starting from the split in SNAP in 1980 during which PBDS was formed, and in the 2002 SNAP crisis during which SPDP was formed; again in 2004 PBDS crisis after which PRS was formed and lastly in the PRS crisis (2006-2008) which almost led to its demise.

We have in the past as well as in the present heard of the term “political frogs” to describe politicians jumping ships. But Mawan likened some Dayaks as “scorpions” moving around and poking people left and right.

“And if you are a scorpion, people will not like you because you are not a smooth creature,” Mawan said.

I am not so sure whether the Dayaks are or were like scorpions or behaving like one. If you look back into all these crises, there was one common denominator: a Chinese towkay was involved one way or the other.

# SNAP’s first crisis in 1980 was because of James Wong who insisted that he must be made the president of the party upon the resignation of Dunstan Endawie (refer to the first volume of The Broken Shield) and Leo Moggie and Daniel Tajem said that since it was a Dayak-based party, the president should be a Dayak. With the help of other Dayak leaders, Wong’s camp defeated Moggie and his group.

# With that victory, Wong behaved a like a dictator in the party and did not brook any criticism to his leadership. Anyone trying to talk about Dayak interests in the party was told to leave the party and form his own racial party. One of those who were very vocal about Dayak issues was Tajem. Wong found an excuse to expel Tajem from the party by accusing him of supporting an independent candidate in the 1982 parliamentary election. His expulsion led to the resignations of several DUN members and MPs from SNAP, who later formed PBDS in September 1983.

# SNAP’s second crisis in 2002 was due to a quarrel between Wong and the MP for Bintulu Tiong King Sing over a TV3 project in Bintulu. The bitter feud led to the expulsion of Tiong from the party. His expulsion was strongly objected by leaders like Mawan, Nyarok, Sylvester Enterie and six others who resigned and formed SPDP. Due to the quarrel SNAP was deregistered, but it is still given a stay of execution. (Tiong owed much to people like Mawan and eight others including the late Peter Tinggom and the late Dr. Judson Tagal for “saving” him).

# Therefore, I was surprised to hear Tiong shouted at all the SPDP leaders during their last meeting, treating them as if they were small children. His loud voice was overheard by many of us – the reporters. We heard him saying: “I spent my bloody money on this party, so do not do that to me ……”)

# As for PBDS crisis in 2004, it was James Masing and again a non-Dayak in the person of Sng Chee Hua was involved. Masing and Sng challenged Tajem and Joseph Salang for the top posts. In their determined efforts to be president and deputy president, they made a lot blunders such as having their own TDC in Bintulu leading to the creation of two “presidents” with two sets of supreme councils and two headquarters. Because of this, PBDS was deregistered. (More details will be revealed with the publication of my second volume of The Broken Shield which will out very, very soon).

# The PRS crisis from 2006 to 2008 was again due to Sng Chee Hua who wanted to topple Masing as president and later his son Larry. But Masing played his game very well and has gotten rid of the Sngs from the party. Now PRS is almost one hundred percent Dayak party, led and financed by Dayaks themselves.

As for SPDP, its future is in the hands of one man – Tiong and we have heard of rumours that he may go for the two post in their TDC this November or even for the number one post.

As Mawan said, SPDP was a democratic party and he expected contests from “top bottom”. Thus Mawan should know better than many of us as to who are the political “scorpions”. But the question I would like to ask is: Can SPDP survive from the sting of the "scorpion"? - The Broken Shield

Source: www.thebrokenshield.blogspot.com

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Taken from: http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/108817

Concerns loom over possible merger

Talks of a merger between two Dayak-based parties Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) and Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) remain as talks only as the two sides have not met officially since the proposal was made in 2005.

"The talks of merger are still on, but we have not met," admitted William Mawan SPDP president after a supreme council meeting yesterday.

"Even though the merger remains illusive, we have other ways of strengthening one another on the ground. We must be seen together first and demonstrate we work to help one another," he said.

Asked if there were any obstacles, Mawan said: "There are no obstacles and as far as I am concerned, I am prepared to step aside in order to allow some one to head the new entity."

"We are very committed to the idea of a merger," he said, adding that there was no time frame for it to be realised.

The merger talks between the two was said to have been proposed by Chief Minster Abdul Taib Mahmud in 2005 in order to strengthen the two parties especially following the de-registration of Snap and PBDS in 2002 and 2004 respectively.

Both SPDP and PRS were born out of the demise of the two parties. For SPDP, it was registered in November 2002 and PRS was registered in Oct 21, 2004, the day when PBDS' registration was revoked.

Sources close to Taib said that the chief minister did not want to be seen as having a hand in the de-registration of the two-Dayak based parties.


Chinese leaders call for caution

But when the idea of a merger was proposed to strengthen 'Dayak unity', Chinese leaders of the two parties called for caution, because any move to merge must be done with great care.

Tiong King Sing, SPDP treasurer general, who was very much against the merger, was reported to have said: "There is no point to merge, if we have to quarrel over who should be the president and who should hold important posts."

"There is no point to merge if at the end of the day, both sides get embroiled in the fight for top posts. If this happens why should we rock the boat?" he asked.

Sng Chee Hua, who was then PRS deputy president, was also reported to be against the merger, saying that some had to make sacrifices if the merger went through.

"No doubt, there will be a bigger room, a bigger boat, but the question is who will be its captain," said Sng.

Now Sng is no longer with PRS and yet PRS is hesitant about the merger, although publicly it is for it.

According to a PRS supreme council member, PRS does not want Tiong to be in the new entity.

"PRS will closely watch SPDP's triennial delegates conference to be held in November this year and the role Tiong is going to play in the party.

"Because of this, PRS' own conference has to be delayed by a year," he said, adding that the decision to merge or not would be known by then.

http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/108817

Double-frogged politicians: Who were the first?

When Bota assemblyman Nasarudin Hashim defected to Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and 10 days later rejoined UMNO, some people claimed that he was the first double-frogged politician.

That is not true. I believe the first double-frogged politician was “born” in Sarawak. It was in Sarawak where this culture of double-frogging began when Ulu Rajang MP Justine Jinggut elected unopposed on a SNAP ticket in the 1982 parliamentary election defected to Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) in 1983. In 1986, he contested on a PBDS ticket and won with a big majority. He leap-frogged back to SNAP before 1987. In 1990 he stood again on a SNAP ticket and was soundly defeated by Billy Abit Joo of PBDS.

Before the State election in April 1987, 28 State assemblymen resigned from their parties to defect to PBDS and Persatuan Rakyat Malaysia Sarawak (Permas).*

Those from Sarawak National Party (SNAP) joined Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) and they were SNAP deputy president Edward Jeli, SNAP secretary general Joseph Balan Seling, SNAP vice president Michael Ben Anak Panggi and SNAP CEC member Geman Anak Itam. Their defections prompted Sarawak’s Chief Minster Abdul Taib Mahmud to call for a fresh election which was held on 15 and 16 April 1987.

PBDS won 15 seats, while Permas won only five seats. Edward Jeli, Geman Anak Itam, Balan Seling and Michael Ben won with big majorities in their respective constituencies. On 14 July 1987, Edward Jeli and Geman leap-frogged back to SNAP, while Balan and Michael Ben hopped to PBB. Sora Anak Rosah defected from PBDS to PBB.

PBDS seats were further reduced to seven when months later Gramong Juna, Mikai Mandau and Bolhassan Kambar defected to PBB.

Sarawak has seen many political frogs since independence, the majority of them were Dayak politicians; and among the first were Nelson Kundai Ngarieng and Stephen Ngelambong from SNAP to PBB, Simon Dembab Maja and Penghulu Abok Anak Jalin from Pesaka to PBB in 1970. Years later Serian MP Richard Riot resigned from PBDS and defected to SUPP.

After partyless for some time, Jawah Gerang joined Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) and after only a few months he hopped to Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS).

As for Johnichal Rayong who contested on a SNAP ticket in the Engkilili state seat secretly joined SPDP, and following the objection of other BN parties, he wanted to leap-frog to SUPP and his acceptance in SUPP should be announced before June 2008. Until today his application to be a political frog is put on hold. Nevertheless, he behaves like one of them.

The ugly culture of political frogs will not only promote the evil of corruption, but it is also the betrayal of the worst kind to those people who voted for them. Unless the government does something such as introducing the anti-hopping law, political frogs will breed more political frogs, and we as Dayaks should support this law as the majority of political frogs come from our community.

But the question is: Why are Dayak politicians so easily succumbed to temptation to become political frogs and to forsake their honour (if they have any way), the honour of their family and their generation to come? - The Broken Shield

* Reference: The Broken Shield – The Birth of Dayakism