ELECTION TALK: Tasik Biru incumbent Peter Nansian is going under, and knowing the end is near, is taking the last few shots back – more out of reflex action than a dying man’s wish to take his rival along with him.
The battle to convince the BN leadership has been many long days and nights, it certainly looks like it has taken a heavy toll on Nansian, who has completely lost the support of all four component parties of BN despite his fervent pronouncements and public declarations that he is a BN man.
“I am still part of a strong BN team,”Nansian was quoted as saying after he took pot shots at Harry Henry Jinep, accusing his potential political nemesis of “talking like an opposition” and “criticising Barisan Nasional government”.
Needless to say, Henry would be the last person in Tasik Biru to be criticising BN, although the Sarawak Progressive Party (SPDP)’s Tasik Biru flag-bearer has every reason to criticise Nansian’s below par performance of the last 20 years and his RM300 million development plan that he wants to implement in the next five years when he had 20 years to do that.
No, Henry did not criticise BN; he directed his criticism at Nansian, and because Nansian believes in his own little lie that he is a BN man, he thinks criticising him is criticising BN.
Nansian is an assistant minister, so he has been going round Tasik Biru telling folk that he is a member of BN. The fact is he works for BN.
Anybody can work for BN, and coincidentally, the state BN is very accommodating of outsiders, which is why we also see people like William Mawan, Wong Soon Koh and Dr Jerip Susil working for BN. But that does not make them BN members.
Because they are working for BN, they can actually say they belong to the BN team. But they are still not BN members because one has to be a member of a BN component party to be a member of BN.
If you are a registered member of any one of the four state BN component parties namely, Parti Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS), Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP and Sarawak progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) then you are a BN member.
If you belong to any other parties, like Nansian is deputy president of Teras, you are not a member of BN even though you are an assistant minister which makes you are a part of the BN team – just like Nansian is.
Unfortunately, most, if not all of these gentlemen who get to be part of the BN team, think that working for the BN makes them a BN member and that when they are criticised, they are quick to deflect criticisms to BN.
That’s what is happening in Tasik Biru. When Henry questioned Nansian regarding his below par performance in the last 20 years, which the incumbent hopes to make up for with a RM300 million development plan in the next five years, Nansian accused Henry of criticising BN.
To Nansian it’s like, you criticise him means you criticise BN because he works for BN; you criticise him for a failed project, you criticise BN; you criticise him for failing to help accommodate the Malay community in the local government, you criticise the BN.
How childish!
And very sad, actually, because that’s when BN gets the blame when someone tasked with a job to do fails to deliver and says, “Don’t blame me, blame the boss.”
Or rather, “Why blame me, go and tell the leadership if you dare!”
Well, it has been many long days and dragging nights, there have been lots of political activities, debates and revelations in Tasik Biru that have not been in favour of Nansian.
If the BN leadership wasn’t aware of all these before, they surely know now because of all the debates and revelations.
The crowds are getting thinner, and all Nasian has are the familiar faces of loyalists who call themselves community leaders but don’t speak for the community they are supposed to serve.
Few now listen to Nansian’s speeches; fewer still believe in his RM300 million development plan.
Villagers no longer come in hordes to his meet-the-leader events; local BN leaders just don’t come at all.
It’s a completely different picture in the Henry camp. Not only are the crowds getting bigger, but all of Tasik Biru’s powerful warlords who once were Nansian’s allies are supporting Henry.
For a man who has been in power for 20 years and seeing this power no longer powerful, it is easy to understand why Nansian wants very much to pit Henry with the BN leadership by accusing the latter of criticising BN.
BN is PBB, PRS, SUPP and SPDP, Henry can’t be criticising BN when he is BN’s choice for Tasik Biru.
The political storm in Tasik Biru is causing a massive flood of support for Henry, Nansian is grabbing at straws but he knows he is going under.-The Ant Daily
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