A MAKESHIFT opposition coalition, Gabungan Anak Sarawak has decided on its pick for chief minister should it win the upcoming Sarawak elections.

With the rather grandiose-sounding acronym Gasak (a Malay word meaning to thump somebody or something), the party wants its president Bobby William to be chief minister should it ascend to power.

William is also president of race-centric Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak Baru (PBDSB).

Other members of the coalition are Parti Aspirasi Rakyat Sarawak (Aspirasi), Sarawak Workers Party (SWP) and civil society organisations campaigning for restoration of state rights Sarawak for Sarawakians (S4S) and Sarawak Independence Alliance (SIA).

Aspirasi’s Lina Soon, in endorsing the decision, said it’s time the chief executive post is “returned” to the Dayaks – the state’s largest ethnic group.

Aspirasi will be contesting “more than 26” of the 82 seats that are up for grabs  while PBDSB is going for only 11, all of them, as expected, predominantly Dayak seats.

However, Sarawak PAS said it will leave the matter of seats to be contested to its central leadership to negotiate with Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS).

PAS and GPS may be members of the ruling Perikatan Nasional alliance at the federal level but the Islamist party is not a member of the four-party ruling coalition in the state.

GPS, which comprises Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS), Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) and Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), has said no seats will be given to either PAS or Bersatu even though they are political allies at the federal level.

Bersatu is a key member of the PN and it holds one seat in the just-dissolved state assembly – Krian, via Deputy Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Ali Biju.

Biju has so far remained mum on his plans for the election – if he’ll defend the seat he had won for two terms and how he plans to do so.

PAS, on the other hand, is hoping for some sympathy from “friends”, with its Sarawak assistant secretary Syamsul Bahrie Mohamad saying the seat discussion should be in keeping with the “Keluarga Malaysia” spirit.

PAS has earlier made known that it is interested in re-contesting in 11 seats (in which they were severely mauled in the last Sarawak elections in 2016), namely Samariang, Pantai Damai, Muara Tuang, Sadong Jaya, Sebuyau, Beting Maro, Kakus, Jepak, Samalaju, Lambir and Pujut.

However, the request is a thrust into Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB’s) Malay-Muslim power base.

In the 2011 polls, the Islamist party contested in five seats and also lost all of them.

The prospect of a multi-cornered contest in mixed and predominantly Chinese seats remained on the cards after Pakatan Harapan (PH) decided to put on hold all discussions for some kind of political cooperation with Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB).

Political analyst James Chin said the animosity between PSB president Wong Soon Koh and DAP Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen is too deep-seated for them to ever work together.

The animosity emanates from the sparring sessions between the two during Wong’s 14 years in the state cabinet until he resigned last year after PSB was accused of undermining GPS’s unity.

Wong had been in the Sarawak United Peoples’ Party (SUPP) – DAP’s erstwhile political enemy – before moving to SUPP’s splinter party, the United People’s Party (UPP) which had renamed itself as Parti Sarawak Bersatu.

Over the weekend, Chong had branded PSB as “too GPS”.

Sarawak PKR acting chairman Abang Zulkifli Abang Engkeh, however,  remained hopeful some sort of consensus could be reached with PSB.

“We do not know what will happen in the future as we still have two months before the state elections,” Abang was quoted as saying recently.

As for the PH seat allocation, PKR is expected to again get the lion’s share. Many analysts say they are unwinnable seats but PKR has been given the task to find candidates to field so as to deny GPS a clear run.

Abang Zulkifli said in the coming elections, PKR has been allocated 49 seats – nine more than the 40 allocated in the last election.

In 2016, DAP contested 31 while its third partner, Amanah, contested 13.

PKR retained three seats – Batu Lintang, Ba Kelalan and Krian – while DAP got thumped, hanging on to seven, while Amanah lost all 13.

PKR lost all three seats when its assemblymen Baru Bian (Ba Kelalan), Ali Biju (Krian) and See Chee How (Batu Lintang) were either sacked or resigned from the party as a consequence of the party’s leadership upheaval last year. – November 9, 2021.