Veteran journalist and author James Ritchie with 35 book titles to his credit has kept himself abreast with political events in Sarawak. Excerpts from his Taib – 50 Years book tell of the present TYT’s efforts to transform Sarawak from a backwater state into what it is today during his 50 – year active political career.
POLITICAL TURBULENCE
In July 1978, Taib won his parliamentary election for a third term and was beginning to look good as candidate for stewardship in Sarawak. He thrashed Lona binte Osman by a 6,140 vote majority.
Taib was now beginning to develop a style of his own. He advocated the propagation of cultural integration and religious tolerance and the ground condition in Sarawak appeared conducive for putting his theories into practice.
He admired Tun Hussein Onn or “Mister Clean”, who fought to restructure society and overcome poverty. When Hussein died of a heart attack, Taib felt he had lost not only a mentor and teacher but also a leader he greatly respected.
Inheriting all the attributes of the three Prime Ministers, Taib revelled in the thought that he would he able to use his abilities and talent for the benefit of his beloved Sarawak. But even in the late 1970s, there were obstacles to his ambitions.
After SNAP rejoined the Barisan Nasional coalition, the PBB leadership began to have a fallout with Stephen Yong Kuet Tze of SUPP.
It had started as far back as 1976 when chief minister Abdul Rahman Yakub began to show signs of insensitivity towards the Chinese community.
In one public meeting he remarked that he was not anti-Chinese because he was sleeping with a Chinese woman every night. Even though this was factually correct, because his wife was Chinese, this did not go down well with the community.
To solve the impasse, Tun Hussein Onn spoke to Taib and asked him to prepare to succeed his uncle as Chief Minister of Sarawak. It was during this time of uncertainty that a new development took place.
In September 1978, Datuk Abdul Rahman Yakub announced his intention to give up his chief ministership.
Taking advantage of in-house squabble, the Democratic Action Party (DAP), a predominantly Chinese party based in the peninsula, decided to establish branches in Sarawak. It was the first time any political group from the peninsula had entered the local arena.
Hard-core SUPP leaders were disturbed by this move at a time when PBB and SUPP were at logger-heads. Had they been deliberately “invited” into Sarawak to break up the unity of the SUPP?. By now, the rift between Rahman’s PBB and SUPP became even wider and it appeared they were on the road of no return.
After September 5, 1979 Sarawak state general election there were charges that a certain group in the PBB had gone all out to topple Yong in the predominantly Dayak Bengoh constituency.
The SUPP suspected that a young Bidayuh, Wilfred Nissom, had been fielded by the PBB with the hope of using Dayak sentiment to unseat Yong. In the contest, Yong polled 4,115 votes to Nissom’s 3,894, winning narrowly by a 221-vote margin.
Initially, Taib who was Defence Minister had campaigned for Yong but was later told by certain PBB elements not to do so. This was the proverbial “Straw that broke the camel’s back”.
Three weeks later, Yong and Ong Kee Hui flew to Kuala Lumpur where they received the good news. Rahman would step down and let Taib succeed. The SUPP had no problem with that as they could work with the PBB deputy president.
A year passed when in October 1980 Abdul Rahman Yakub suffered a heart attack and went for a by-pass operation in London. Arriving back in Kuching on January 7, 1981, the rumour that he would retire became stronger.
Taib was prepared to take over. Rahman was willing to “forgive and forget” the past. As such Taib had to relinquish his post as Federal Territory Minister and prepare for his new post.
In late January 1981, Datuk Hussein Onn left for London to undergo a coronary by-pass operation in London leaving Dr Mahathir Mohamad as the acting Prime Minister.
Three weeks later on February 18, Sebandi state assemblywoman, Sharifah Mordiah resigned to pave the way for the return of Taib to the Sarawak State cabinet.
On March 8, 1981, the State BN endorsed Taib as the Barisan Nasional candidate to stand in the Sebandi constituency by-election.
Following the by-election two days later, Taib was returned unopposed. This was followed by a touching scene where both uncle and nephew embraced each other, both with tears in their eyes.
Soon after being sworn in on March 11 as a State cabinet minister before the Yang Dipertua Negeri, Tun Datuk Patinggi Abang Haji Muhammed Salahuddin at the Lajau ceremonial hall in Petra Jaya, Taib prepared to leave for Mecca to perform the “Umrah” – a minor Haj to prepare himself for the great responsibility which had been placed on his shoulders.
Returning from Mecca, Taib was officially appointed State Minister of Lands and Mines on March 20.
The big day came when on March 26, 1981 Taib was sworn in as the fourth Chief Minister of Sarawak. In return Rahman was appointed Governor of Sarawak a week later and was bestowed the title “Tun”.
SNAP CRISIS
As chief Minister, Taib’s first big political test was to deal within the SNAP leadership crisis. It had started as far back as 1979 when Rahman told SNAP that he wanted to step down as chief minister.
However, calling his bluff, SNAP president Datu Dunstan Endawi said that if Raman did so, he (Dunstan) was willing to take over. The time was long overdue for an Iban chief minister.
“The incident caused considerable embarrassment to Tan Sri Abdul Rahman because a bid by Datuk Dunstan could have won the support of SUPP in view of its uneasy relationship with the Chief Minister.” (Echo, March 3, 1981).
However, in a surprise move, Dunstan accepted the post of Malaysian High Commissioner to New Zealand and resigned as SNAP’s president, leaving a vacuum at the helm.
With Dunstan’s departure, SNAP’s Datuk Daniel Tajem took over the post of deputy chief minister from his predecessor. At that time, SNAP’s secretary general, Datuk Leo Moggie, a close associate of Rahman, began to emerge as a compromise candidate for the post of President given the situation SNAP was in.
“D” day came on December 7, 1981 when SNAP’s deputy president, James Wong decided to vie for the top post, thus breaking the tradition of an Iban leading SNAP. In an article entitled, “The Wong versus Moggie showdown” the NST wrote that this was SNAP’s severest test of strength in its 18-year history.
Wong, the paper said, was contesting for president on a point of principle and to show that SNAP was a multi-racial party. Moggie, on the other hand, felt strongly that SNAP should be headed by a Dayak because the party’s strength was rural-based.
Wong defeated Moggie, leading to the souring of relationships between their supporters. It was a slap in the face of Moggie, who was already the Federal Minister for Energy, Telecommunications and Posts in 1978. Things began to worsen.
Soon after the April 27, 1982 parliamentary elections, SNAP’s vice president and Sarawak deputy chief minister, Datuk Daniel Tajem anak Miri who was aligned to Moggie, was asked to show cause for his alleged support of independant Datuk Edwin Tangkun, who beat SNAP’s Wellington Rufus Nanang in the Batang Lupar constituency.
(To be continued)
