QUICK TAKE: According to Chinese philosopher and military strategist Sun Tze, “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”
Sarawak Chief Minister Adenan Satem seems to be adhering to this ancient Chinese philosophy to solve the impasse of seat allocation between Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) and United People’s Party (UPP) as well as between Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) and Parti Tenaga Rakyat Sarawak (Teras).
While many were waiting anxiously for Adenan to make a concrete announcement of the list of candidates before the month ends, he told the media after a Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) supreme council meeting on Jan 24 (where he is the president) that the party’s list of candidates will only be made known in March.
This means that other component parties – Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS), SUPP and SPDP – will not know their seat allocation this month or next month either as the announcement ought to be synchronised with that of PBB, which is the dominant party of the Sarawak BN.
Adenan himself had hinted that the state election could be held sometime in March. If that be the case, the announcement will be made only during the eve of nomination day.
Both SUPP and SPDP have stressed in no uncertain terms that they do not allow any of their allocated seats to be taken away by their rival parties. "You touch one seat, you touch all," this was the message they sent to the chief minister.
Meanwhile, Adenan is finding himself in a Catch 22 situation. The president of Teras (the SPDP breakaway faction) William Mawan Ikom is a senior minister in his cabinet while the president of UPP (the SUPP breakaway faction) Wong Soon Koh is a full minister.
In addition, the fate of four other loyal assistant ministers is at stake: Nansian Ngusie, Sylvester Entri Muran, Rosey Yunus and Jerip Susil.
Many are asking: Is this a delay tactic employed by Adenan to solve the SUPP/UPP and SPDP/Teras impasse?
Is this not an excellent way to minimise the disappointment that some parties might face on hearing the news on seat allocation?
Since it will be on the eve of nomination, the bereaved parties will not have any time to recoup themselves, to vent their anger to the media or to seek sympathy from other component parties of the state BN.
Adenan will be kind of telling them, “Take this, this is your share of the pie. Either you take it or you leave it on the table.”
A master tactician at play.-The Ant Daily
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