SARAWAK PKR chairman Baru Bian’s surprise decision to contest in the Iban-majority seat of Selangau will be a test to see if voters in the state of more than 40 sub-tribes have moved beyond communal politics, analysts say.

Baru, the Ba’ Kelalan assemblyman and an ethnic Lun Bawang, raised eyebrows when he announced that he would contest in Selangau, a rural federal seat of more than 30,000 voters, 90% of whom are from the majority Iban tribe.

Local sentiments hold that Sarawak’s voters would vote along ethnic lines. But political analyst Jeniri Amir disagreed, pointing to instances when voters have bucked this assumption.

The Universiti of Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) lecturer pointed to Bintulu incumbent Tiong King Sing, an ethnic Chinese, who got elected to a constituency where 60% of voters are Iban, not once, but for four terms.

Jeniri also said that in the 1995 general election, another Chinese businessman, Sng Chee Hua, won the Julau seat where 95% of voters were Iban. At state-level, Aidan Wing, a Melanau, was elected for two-terms to the Kedayan-majority state assembly seat of Lambir in Miri.

More problematic than Baru’s ethnicity will be the fact that he is an outsider to Selangau, said University of Tasmania director of Asia Institute James Chin, a keen Sarawak observer.

Baru has said he was opting to stand in Selangau after the sacking of Parti Rakyat Sabah (PRS) deputy president and caretaker minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Joseph Entulu from the party last Sunday following internal party troubles.

BN has picked lawyer Rita Sarimah Patrick Insol to replace Entulu in GE14. In the 2013 polls, Entulu who has held Selangau for three terms, retained the seat in a three-way contest by 7,555 votes.

Baru, who is also Sarawak PKR chief and a well-known native land rights lawyer, is banking on his track record of defending native customary rights disputes between landowners and the state government.

“Most of our NCR cases are in this area – Selangau, Tamin and Kakus,” he said, naming areas that are under the Selangau seat.

Baru, who speaks a little Iban, said he hoped voters here would not look at him based on his racial ethnicity.

“We should move on from racial and communal politics. We should look at the quality of candidates who could raise issues for the people because that is the main purpose of an elected representative.”

This will not be Baru’s first attempt at a parliamentary seat. In 2013 he stood in Limbang, a largely Lun Bawang seat, but lost to the incumbent from BN by 8,301 votes. – April 29, 2018.