KUCHING – Nothing captures a nation’s zeitgeist better than a political slogan. In Sarawak, there have been one too many being bandied about for some time.
“Sarawak for Sarawakians” goes the clarion call of the S4S pressure group.
A slew of opposition political parties clamour for “Malaysia Agreement 1963”.
“Dayak Lives Matter” has been the indigenous cry of the Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak.
Parti Aspirasi has never stopped pushing for the “Sarawak Referendum” since Day 1.
Other parties, too, hold their own, each with a slanted objective jockeying for one-upmanship.
Now, here’s the latest mantra – “My Vision for a New Sarawak” – proffered by Baru Bian, former state PKR chief, now in the sheepfold of Parti Sarawak Baru (PSB).
It is election season in Sarawak and politicians and their parties are busy weaving their spells of hard sell to gain voter visibility.
In the alphabet soup of sloganeering in the state, Baru’s catchwords though sounding cliché-like, look set to gain traction on the ceramah stage when campaigning begins.
“My Vision for a New Sarawak” outlined in more than 2,000 words seems to have some meaningful clout and plenty of essential basis in its module.
Everybody knows it. What Sarawak needs right now is tremendous political vision and a relentless focus on growth and development.
The unity of the people, infrastructure expansion and enhancement of the education system are the needs of the hour for Sarawakians – and it is to these that the state’s gaggle of politicians must pay heed. And that is if they are sincere in their efforts to reduce disparities and bring their people out of poverty and backwardness.
Baru’s vision was marshalled as a blueprint after the infamous “Sheraton Move”, when he went into pause mode – refusing to join the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition and thereby losing his job as works minister in the federal government.
If one takes the “considered view” that reform can only take off when there’s a crisis staring us in the face, there is a chance that Baru’s vision can be looking at something beyond rhetoric.
Baru holds court in Ba’kelalan
The placid cool highlands of Ba’kelalan, some 900m above sea level, is the primeval Lun Bawang outpost in the Maligan Mountains. It is here that Baru holds court as the incumbent assemblyman and the “looked-up-to” chieftain by the Lun Bawang.
It is here, too, that Baru is likely to publicly propose his “New Vision for Sarawak” on a wider scale when the stages light up for the nightly ceramah soon.
Speaking to The Vibes recently, Baru said: “In my engagement with the people here, I gather that there are areas that need great attention. They are infrastructure development, the economy, education, employment, corruption and taking control of the state’s natural resources, especially its oil and gas reserves, instead of letting others dictate terms to the state and to Sarawakians.”
Baru, who is also Selangau MP, is aware that voters have expressed their need for a government that delivers good governance, and one that is beyond the politics of religion, hate narratives and division.
“Sarawak is the only state in the country without an ‘official religion’, a thorny apparatus that causes division based on beliefs and ethnicity.
“We want to keep it this way, and this is one of the high points reiterated in my new vision for Sarawak,” said Baru, himself a staunch evangelical Christian but leaning towards the more universal secular ethos.
In his draft plan for a greater, newer Sarawak, Baru has also listed cross-wire national-state issues pertaining to Sarawak, such as the prickly Malaysia Agreement 1963, which he will continue to raise at his rostrum in Parliament.
According to Baru, his supporters share PSB’s vision for a New Sarawak, which gels nicely with his own hot-button module for a “New Vision” to uplift the state from its present economic backwardness that has readily earned the state the moniker “richest state with the poorest people”.
Shrugs off ‘katak’ tag
Like every politician, Baru is not immune to being character-assassinated by cynics and nay-sayers. His brief history of moving from one party to another is the target of scorn that critics are using to deliver body-blows to his otherwise non-tainted populist approach in Sarawak politics.
His April move from PKR to PSB has given his foes fodder to brand him a frog (katak), a “proverbial rebuke” in Malaysian politics when candidates jump from one party to another, especially after clandestine horse-trading and big payouts.
The Melbourne-trained lawyer has indeed moved from one party to another since his first candidacy but his moves have been purely for good reasons and keeping in tune to the dynamic evolvement of the political landscape and staying relevant to the signs of the times.
He first stood in 1991 on a Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak ticket for the Lawas seat (now Bukit Sari) but he lost.
In 2004, he stood as an independent candidate in Ba’kelalan and lost again.
Two years later, he contested on a Sarawak National Party ticket, again in Ba’kelalan. Baru lost by a mere 475 votes.
Disillusioned and defeated, he declined to contest in the 2008 general election, and considered turning away from the politician's podium to the pastor's pulpit.
However, the winds of change unleashed a political tsunami across the South China Sea in the 2008 general election. The ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) government on the peninsula lost five states to the opposition and its two-thirds majority in Parliament.
This convinced Baru to make a U-turn and engage in yet another round of canvassing in a last-ditch attempt to wear the politician’s hat
.
“In a large sense, what happened in the peninsula was significant. I was thinking of the ripple effect it could have on the East Malaysian mindset and the positive implications of the new political sentiments there.
“I could see something good brewing and so, I decided to stand in the 2011 state elections in Ba’kelalan under PKR. This time around, I won,” said Baru.
Intelligent ‘katak’
Myth has it that a frog, when placed in a pot of water over a stove and the temperature brought to boiling point “very gradually”, will not be able to sense the increasing heat and will remain in the steaming cauldron. It will eventually get scalded and die.
“That is a stupid katak,” says Baru, seemingly attesting to this myth when, in early November, he explained to reporters the reason he moved from PKR to PSB.
Certainly, Baru is not teflon-coated to withstand the rising temperature within PKR, where factional politics has become the order of the day.
“We, including Batu Lintang assemblyman See Chee How, had no choice but to leave; that is what happened. When we joined PKR initially, we thought it was a multiracial party, fighting for justice for everyone, but along the way, its leaders changed.
“If you no longer believe in that vision and mission anymore, you leave the party; it would be silly to stay.
“When we left, we were branded as katak (political frog). But we are good kataks. An intelligent katak would jump, a stupid katak would stay and get scalded,” he quipped.
Baru said he and PKR Sarawak supported former PKR deputy president Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali because he appeared to be the leader in PKR.
“He was the one who was perceived to bring changes and he delivered on a few things, (on his) promises within the party.
“But at the end of the day, we looked at the choices that Azmin made.
“You know, I left Azmin and his cohorts at the last minute because what they decided was not what I believed in,” Baru said, referring to his declaration of support for Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad at the eleventh hour in late February.
Game plan for Ba’kelalan
Asked what the sentiment of supporters in Selangau is, especially in Ba’kelalan, now that competing narratives are pitching to a feverish crescendo as the election draws nearer, he said: “The response is very encouraging so far.”
“We are with the people, explaining ‘our move’, and they appear to appreciate and have a ground-level understanding of the change in politics and the fact that I did not join PN in spite of possibly being offered the same portfolio.
“In fact, the number of members in my branch has increased by 50% since I left PKR.”
He said: “We have divided our 'kawasan' into 10 districts with committees formed in each district. We have attracted ex-civil servants to join us, even in the main committee. This has never happened before.
“The voters are also aware that I have been raising issues on their behalf both in Parliament and in the state assembly, which was seldom done by my predecessors.
“I raised wide-ranging issues, like infrastructure development, hospitals, schools, freedom of religion and the ever prevalent Native Customary Rights land issues, which means a lot to voters everywhere in Sarawak,” said Baru.
People-centric
For Baru, nothing seems to have changed in Ba’kelalan. His popularity continues to reach stratospheric heights sustained by his effectively projected image as a man of the people who works with great sincerity to improve the lot of the common man.
Baru’s pro-poor and his pro-rural push has had a considerable impact on his Lun Bawang people.
He seems to be there with the people, sometimes planting the popular Adani rice of the hill tribes, and, from time to time, breaking bread as a pastor-preacher in the village chapels of the Sidang Injil Borneo denomination.
From being a fringe player in the state’s politics to becoming the principal stalwart and people’s champion today, the “intelligent katak” may want to add another verve to his sloganeering.
Perhaps, “pandai pandai katak melompat, akhirnya menjadi jaguh, teguh dan kuat”. – The Vibes, December 7, 2020
