Mambong likely to witness a four-corner battle

ELECTION TALK: Sarawak's 11th state election is looming but allocation of new seats for the various BN component parties has yet to be finalised while picking winnable candidates to contest under the Barisan Nasional (BN) banner is still shrouded in mystery.

Among the most talked about seats this time around is Mambong (formerly called Bengoh) where Assistant Minister of Health Dr Jerip Susil is the incumbent.

Dr Jerip, who won the seat three times since 2001 under the Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP)-BN banner, left the party in 2014 to form another party, United People's Party (UPP) together with Community Development Minister Wong Soon Koh and two other SUPP elected representatives – Ranum Mina (Opar) and Johnical Rayong (Engkilili).

UPP became a BN-friendly party while Jerip and Wong continue to be in Adenan's cabinet.

As part of Adenan's plan to solve the seat allocation impasse between SUPP and UPP, he had recently mandated SUPP deputy president Richard Riot Jaem, who is also a federal minister, to look for SUPP potential candidates for the four Dayak seats – Mambong, Opar, Simanggang and Engkilili – which traditionally belong to SUPP.

Should that be the case, it is clear that Adenan wants the four Dayak seats to remain with SUPP. This would mean that the four seats in question are now out of UPP's reach.

Where would that leave Dr Jerip in the upcoming election? When told about the chief minister's mandate to Riot, he said, "I have not heard about that."

Asked to confirm rumours that he might stand in the newly created seat of Serembu under the BN banner, he answered, "That's not true. I will still stand in Mambong."

Could it be possible that Dr Jerip might be mulling over the idea of standing in Mambong as an independent candidate if he is not able to do so under the UPP-BN banner.

After all, Mambong has been his political home ground for the last two decades. Before he first won on a SUPP-BN ticket in 2001, he had stood as an independent candidate in the same constituency in 1996 and he narrowly lost to the late William Tanyuh, who represented SUPP-BN.

Hence, his support in Mambong runs deep and even as an independent candidate, he is a force to be reckoned with.

Mambong is not short of qualified SUPP potential candidates and Riot's choice seems to have been narrowed down to two of them – Mambong SUPP chairman Ahkim Sarok and retired senior customs officer Dr Benedict Poris.

Ahkim is a chartered accountant (ACA) as well as a member of the Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA). He also holds an MBA degree from Ohio University.

Meanwhile, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) has been working hard on the ground in Mambong since the past several years. The name Willie Mongin has been announced by the party.

Mongin is an IT consultant who holds a Bsc (Hons) in Computing from Staffordshire University.

During the last election in 2011, Mongin managed to garner a sizable 4,447 votes though he bowed out to BN's Dr Jerip by a 3,646-vote majority. He is trying to redeem his loss this time around.

Democratic Action Party (DAP) will not be out of the action in Mambong either. The party remains at loggerheads with PKR in the coming state election and has named Sanjan Daik as its candidate.

Before his recent retirement, Sanjan had been an English lecturer at Teacher Education Institute, Batu Lintang Campus. Besides having an education degree from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Sanjan also has a law degree from University of London.

It looks like a four-corner fight Mambong is on the cards.-The Ant Daily