By JOCELINE TAN
Sunday February 27, 2011
‘Not the time to talk about political transition’ - Tuan Haji Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah
Election fever, an ambitious opposition, a stunning new wife and hints about calling it a day: it is a mixed bag of emotions and issues for Tan Sri Taib Mahmud as he prepares to call for state polls.
TAN Sri Taib Mahmud went the extra mile during the recent Chinese New Year festivities.
He always spends at least three days calling on his Chinese political partners in Kuching, Miri and Sibu.
This time, he also stopped at Bintulu where he visited the home of local community leader Barry Yek, whose father is reputed to be Bintulu’s richest man.
Golden couple: Taib has hinted that he is ready to call it a day even though he is
about to seek a fresh political mandate. He has just begun a new life with his young
wife Ragad (right) and the couple is seen here at the SUPP open house in Kuching
on Feb 4.
In Sibu, he called on State Minister Datuk Seri Wong Soon Koh, the town’s most powerful political warlord. He also visited Lanang MP Datuk Tiong Thai King, whose billionaire brother Tan Sri Tiong Hiew King is one of the wealthiest men in Malaysia.
But Taib’s Chinese New Year focus has usually been on Miri, the political base of Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan whose daughter is married to Taib’s son.
“He does that every year. It has become tradition for him,” said Dr Chan, president of the Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP), the second biggest party in the state Barisan Nasional.
It was quite a full schedule for the 74-year-old leader but his new wife Puan Sri Ragad Waleed Alkurdi was there to help him keep the pace.
The Syrian beauty stole the show wherever she went during the Chinese New Year visits, and many were more interested in watching her than the lion dances.
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| Abdul Karim: ‘Not the time to talk about political transition’ |
They talk about her stunning looks and statuesque figure, her natural grace, her spectacular ruby necklace and how Taib is so evidently besotted with her.
The couple turned up in matching lime green outfits at the SUPP open house in Kuching, and everyone noticed their cosy body language.
They are Sarawak’s Golden Couple.
But with election fever in the air, Taib’s festive rounds this year is also being read as a gesture towards the Chinese.
The Chinese ground has not been warm to him and he seems to be making a renewed effort to reach out to them.
His language and tone towards the community have also softened in recent months.
During a dinner gathering with the influential Federation of Chinese Associations for Kuching and Samarahan, he appealed to them: “If I don’t have your representatives, I can’t get good advice on how to help your community.”
He said it would be a “sad, sad thing” if he did not have “good, sober and thinking Chinese leaders” in his administration.
“Being a non-Chinese, I am not able to speak directly to your community from the heart and I need your representatives to do that,” he said.
More recently, he said he had never underestimated the ability of the opposition to win elections. It was the first time he was admitting that his coalition takes the opposition seriously.
Taib has often been accused of having lost touch after so many years in power but his statements of late show he is fully aware of the challenges ahead. He is under no illusions about the coming state polls.
Although he is in no danger of losing power, the outcome may affect his ability to control his legacy.
Ready to retire
The other extraordinary thing is that various leaders in his ruling coalition have openly touched on the issue of “leadership transition”, the polite word for Taib’s retirement.
Taib’s political longevity has been a rather touchy subject. But the sense among many in Kuching is that Taib has privately indicated he is preparing to go after the state elections otherwise those around him would not have dared broach the subject.
“No one lives forever but we’ll talk about the transition when it comes. It may be right after the election, it may be five years later but it’s not happening now,” said Taib’s chief political secretary Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah.
Last weekend he startled a dinner audience when he indicated that “it is time to call it a day.”
He said he had been thinking of retiring “due to old age.”
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| Chong: ‘The opposition’s biggest issue will be Taib’ |
Several days earlier, he said that he and his other Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Alfred Jabu were getting old and were ready to go if there were qualified people to take over.
“I’ve never heard him speak that way before. He has talked about grooming people and about successors but not about going,” commented a Sarawak professional.
In fact, several of his potential successors have retired and one has died.
“Taib has always told us that when he goes, he wants everything in place; he wants to leave a team that can hold the fort. That’s his main worry. At the moment, I think he is trying to see who is most acceptable to his own party, PBB (Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu),” said Dr Chan.
Such remarks from Taib would have, in earlier times, been read as testing the waters. But May 26 will mark Taib’s 30th year in power. No one else in the country has been in power this long.
He is a shrewd politician and the alarm bells have probably gone off following the shock exit of Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak who was approaching his 30th year in power.
Taib’s calling-it-a-day remarks may be part of his strategy to defuse charges that he has overstayed.
“The biggest issue in our campaign will be Taib,” admitted Kuching MP Chong Chieng Jen, DAP’s point man in Sarawak.
DAP politicians found out in the Sibu by-election last year that they could work up the crowd by hitting out at the wealth and business connections of the Taib family.
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| Dr Chan: ‘Taib wants a good team to hold the fort’ |
However, his long years in politics is not the issue per se. Urban voter sentiment in Sarawak is being shaped by the perception that it has led to nepotism and cronyism in business practices, and that the genuine businessmen are fed-up. They say it is bad for the economy.
Land and the escalating cost of living will also be big issues in the coming polls.
Among Sarawakians, there is the notion that land belongs to the people. The natives are not the only ones asserting their rights over land. Many Chinese are land owners and they feel the Government should not be charging so much on land premium or acquiring private land at nominal value.
“Pakatan Rakyat cannot capture power but we are confident of the Chinese seats,” said Chong.
The conventional wisdom is that only the 15 or so Chinese seats are in danger. The opposition took seven of those seats in 2006 and is confident of winning 12 this time.
It wants to create a momentum for the general election, and to punch holes in the Barisan claim that Sarawak is its fixed deposit state.
The burden as such lies on SUPP, which has to take on the DAP. SUPP has to stop the slide for its own political survival.
But, said a Kuching businessman, Barisan should not be over-confident about the sentiments in semi-urban seats dominated by the Dayaks and Ibans. For instance, native land rights lawyer and state PKR chief Baru Bian is a credible figure whom locals take seriously.
The conditions today are vastly different from when Taib last went to the polls. The opposition is more organised and has greater resources, and the Internet is revealing scandals and issues that Sarawakians did not know of.
Nothing, said the businessman, should be taken for granted.
In the meantime, the election is all the Sarawak intelligentsia talks about these days, whether in the kopitiam or in their living rooms.
Taib, on the other hand, does not seem affected by the election fever. Despite mounting political pressure, Taib has never looked happier in a mellow sort of way.
He is either putting on a good front or is genuinely in a happy place at the moment.
And why not? He is in great physical shape for someone his age; and his young, Venus-like wife has done wonders for his image.
He is about to face the most challenging election in his career, which most people think will be his last, and he would want to do well so that he can go with a bang.
He said at a dinner affair recently that he was “saving the best for last.” Most people were left guessing what he meant.
But that’s Taib. He likes to keep them guessing, be it the election date or his retirement.
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