Pakatan questions Taib’s rush to be sworn-in as CM to ignore Najib's promise to rakyat

KUCHING, April 17 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) questioned today Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud’s haste to be sworn-in as Sarawak Chief Minister for the seventh term despite the ruling Barisan Nasional’s (BN) two-thirds win in key state polls yesterday, and linked it to the prime minister’s growing influence here.

The DAP-PKR-PAS opposition bloc noted that the white-haired 74-year-old nicknamed “Pek Moh” had wasted no time and rushed to the governor’s residence in Astana despite the late hour as soon as the official results were in.

“Taib was hastily sworn in as chief minister at 10.40pm,” the DAP’s secretary-general, Lim Guan Eng, pointed out at the opposition bloc’s joint press conference here today.

Guan Eng’s father, DAP advisor, Kit Siang, cut in with his observation that “it’s as if there were higher powers trying to stop him from becoming chief minister.”

“Whether he is afraid Najib may intervene and spoil his plans... We do not know.

“It’s a question that only Taib can answer,” the senior Lim said.

The DAP scored its biggest win in Sarawak yesterday, doubling its presence to 12 seats and caused an upset by packing off six-term incumbent and deputy chief minister Tan Sri George Chan Hong Nam from the Piasau state seat.

PKR won three seats while PAS lost in all five seats it contested despite initial confidence that PR could take away BN’s two-thirds majority in the state as it did at the federal level in Election 2008.

PR had made Taib’s departure from power as the main plank of its campaign but the PBB president ensured that his party won all 35 seats it contested to keep him in power.

There is speculation that he will remain as chief minister until he can take over as the state governor from the current incumbent, 89-year-old Tun Abang Haji Muhammad Salahuddin Abang Barieng once his term expires.

Abdul Taib has led the BN coalition in the East Malaysian state for 30 years, but last night pledged to hand over power midway into his seventh term as CM following pressure from the BN leadership.

It is understood that the ruling coalition views Abdul Taib, unpopular with Sarawak’s majority voters, as a liability and is eager to put the Sarawak BN chairman out to pasture.

Kit Siang also noted Abdul Taib was reported to have said he will take a month to assemble his state cabinet, after his lieutenant and SUPP chief, Chan, was resoundingly defeated in Piasau.

The PR leadership questioned the need for the man who has been in power so long to take a whole month to set it up.

“Why must take one month for him to constitute his cabinet?

“The message from yesterday is clear. The people want him to go. What he should do now is to go to the legislative assembly and start the transition of power. Go to the legislative assembly and constitute his succession plan,” Kit Siang told reporters.

BN won 55 seats, seven less than in the 2006 state election.

Its share of the popular vote also decreased from 62.93 per cent in 2006 to 55.24 per cent this year.

The ruling coalition managed to keep its two-thirds legislative majority in Sarawak but last night’s results have shattered its apparent invincibility and the notion of a “fixed deposit” in future elections.

Apart from PR’s 15 seats, one more seat, Pelagus, was won by independent George Lagong.

The number of state seats to PR will spell danger for BN as it could help the opposition bloc win more parliamentary seats when the general election is called by Najib.

PR now has 75 MPs but the Sarawak win could translate into more in the future.

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