Politics, I have enough of its dosage. Anointed once, albeit (probably – I think) half-heartedly by the man holding the Krian state seat to replace him, it became more of an obsession and not just a form of seasonal enthusiasm.
After almost losing my job as a government school principal, I put such direct and apparent involvement at the backseat and the almost inaccessible labyrinth of my mind and have kept it there for many moons and certainly have no intention to reactivate the snarling tiger that has been put to sleep. As such those various political rendezvous of some 35 years ago have remained under wrap and unknown to most except a handful of people involved directly.
I always stay away from politics in my writing and have no intention to change that except for this one that I dedicate to some friends and enthusiasts out there. Sadly a few persons that I once shared such sentiments over several rendezvous that were and still are privy to few have been called home to join the good Lord. I wish them well and everlasting peace in their new abodes.
Now that GE14 is around the corner, I have been told that most areas are busy seeing politicians lobbying for candidacies especially in ‘open’ and ‘doubtful’ areas or constituencies, with many of these being overly shared in the social media, especially facebook, a new campaign medium. These also include some who are seen by many to have overstayed their welcome. Again, I am not making any judgement on this, for the purpose of my writing is not to judge but just making a personal observation, though I must admit that a few of my friends are incumbent MPs.
Of course this is an interesting time for both Churchills and Kennedys to come out with their special tributes – Churchill for his speech and Kennedy for his good look. However, most of the time, our local politicians are neither Churchills nor Kennedys. Adding to that, a good number of them are in Parliament just to add to the number and accomplish very little if any, to use the very words of a national newspaper.
Recalling some past episodes, my late cousin Dunstan Endawie Enchana (Datuk Amar) surprisingly dropped by at Block 312 of University Sains Malaysia (USM) Minden Campus in Penang on 24 August 1975 to visit me, thus fulfilling his promise to my late dad. Endawie was then SNAP president – the party was also Sarawak’s official Opposition – who was also the incumbent Krian state assemblyman. Leo Moggie Irok (Tan Sri Datuk Amar) who joined him to visit me in USM was then the party secretary-general. Such visit was significant to me as I was not only a few hundred ringgit richer subsequent to the visit, but was unofficially anointed as heir apparent to the Krian by Endawie himself. Not surprising when I came back to Sarawak for our long semester break in 1976, Endawie and Moggie were busily preparing to rejoin Barisan Nasional. When we met in Saratok town, Endawie cordially requested me to join his trip to Krian longhouses to solicit public support for SNAP to rejoin the National Front after a brief stint as Opposition in Sarawak, thanks to securing 18 seats out of 48 seats (and 42 per cent of total votes) in the 1974 State Elections. Our longhouse visits in Krian lasted three days and thereafter we went to Sibu to accompany Moggie to call on a number of Dayak leaders, including those heading government departments there. I recall visiting ACP Nicholas Ratih who was heading Lanang Camp Field Force contingent and few other heads of departments, including Edward Kechendai, who headed the Iban Section of RTM Sibu – many years later Edward became my father-in-law.
By the time I graduated in 1979, Endawie who served as Deputy Chief Minister from 1976 till 1979 under Abdul Rahman Yakub (Tun), was appointed as Malaysia’s High Commissioner to New Zealand. We had no chance to meet and all his personal promises to me were not fulfilled, if remembered at all. We were reunited in the mid-eighties when the political scenario was very much different.
Political discussions still remained our favourites as young college lecturers in the early 80s, more so when Michael Manyin joined Rajang Teachers College as Deputy Principal after graduating with MA from Manchester University. Over coffee and beer, politics was one of our favourite topics.
“If you can’t beat them, it’s better to join them,” Manyin used to say. This was what he did years later and now that man doesn’t need any introduction at all. His ‘Dato Sri’ honorific is a statement by itself – I used to play back his joke that ‘Sarawak has too many Datuks…first class, second class ect bla bla..that if someone dines on the first floor restaurant chooses to throw a fish bone out of the window, it will fall on a Datuk’.
Our political discussions continued even after I left college on transfer to head a school where Manyin, then having served as head of two schools, offered to be my mentor, calling me ‘Datuk’ and made me call him ‘Tan Sri’. So the Tan Sri-Datuk phone calls continued until the State Election of late 1983. That was when I went ‘AWOL’ to Saratok and supported an independent candidate, becoming his proposer and thereby committing an offence under Chapter D, Section 73 (b) of the General Order for Federal Officers and if prosecuted and found guilty would have got the sack. Looking back at it later I realised such a decision was erratic but never regretted to regretted. Most voters in Krian would prefer that I become the candidate instead of an election agent. SNAP, my beloved party then, had different opinion and lost, despite putting incumbent Saratok MP as state election candidate.
Four of us on the top list- I was number three – all senior civil servants did not make it to the nomination hall as candidate. I was there as Proposer to an independent candidate. A day earlier I paid RM500 as Election Deposit and was issued the Nomination Form together with the T.69 (issued pursuant to Treasury Instruction No. 69) receipt by the District Office senior clerk.
After Nomination Day, I had to hurry back to the Kanowit school, after being AWOL for a few days and did not get to see Kennedys and Churchills trying to maximise their skills with voters in Krian.
It was in Sibu’s Premier Hotel before voting that I met Edward Jeli (Datuk) who was then SNAP deputy president. He was the one who showed me the list of the party’s potential candidates for the 1983 state election. At the same hotel in the evening, my good friend William Mawan (now Tan Sri) was preparing for his own battle against Pakan incumbent Dr Jawi Masing. He was in a short-sleeved blue batek shirt – or was it a Hawaiian shirt? – and white short pant, seated on the bed counting coins with a few others, thanks no thanks to a bad weather that rendered it too dangerous to fly to Pakan using helicopter. He lost about 400 votes to Jawi in the 1983 race.
Now 35 years later, there been have changes in the scene. Mawan has made spectacular rise in the political ladder and so have Manyin and few others, including one or two surprised choices. I cannot say for others, but if Endawie had fulfilled his promises uttered in a small wooden longhouse room of USM’s Block 312 in 1975, I might not be writing this article. Many a time, one is fated to be as such. This fate may confine you to a small space whereby you may not have so much liberty to choose. And to concur with Manyin using Ghandi’s words, if rape is
inevitable, just lie down and enjoy it.
I must say that, to use the words of my former USM Education lecturer Dr Koh Tsu Koon (Tan Sri), there are lucky elected reps who come to where they are attributed to ‘sponsored mobility’ whereas many are of course through ‘achieved mobility’. Many of the lucky ones are neither Kennedys or Churchills.
