-Pic credit to Facebook PSB
-Pic credit to Facebook PSB

As Sarawak girds for its 12th state election — postponed indefinitely under the pandemic-induced emergency — much speculation is on the prospects for political new kid on the block Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB).

The party's name suggests an attempt to mirror the chutzpah of Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), which came out of nowhere to eke out a surprise win in the Sabah election of 1985.

Like PBS, PSB makes much of its multiracial character as it has courted members from across the multiethnic rainbow of Sarawak, and aims at nothing less than wresting the state from the ruling Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) coalition, however unlikely that seems.

As with former Sabah chief minister and PBS leader Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan, who was unceremoniously booted out of the then ruling Berjaya party in early 1985 only to lead the rookie PBS into helming a new government by the year's end, former Sarawak minister and PSB president, Datuk Seri Wong Soon Koh, similarly fancies himself a political martyr felled by machinations in the state ruling coalition he was once a part of. He sees himself returning in triumph leading the next Sarawak government.

How likely is recent Sabah political history to manifest in Sarawak today? Not very likely.

For one, GPS shows scant signs it is imploding. If anything, it is making good use of the extra time before the state polls to keep its already well-oiled machinery humming along.

The feat of racing ahead of all other states in vaccinating most people against Covid-19 in even the most far-flung corners of this vast state will no doubt be touted as no mean achievement by a government that delivers.

To be sure, PSB has some advantages not usually associated with a state opposition party: substantial resources to mount a truly state-wide political operation, a credibly multiracial composition and, in Wong, an experienced politician who knows the innermost workings of the state government.

PSB received a boost when, in the fallout from the so-called Sheraton Move of 2020, two PKR stalwarts — former state party leader and federal minister Baru Bian and state assemblyman See Chee How — opted to join it.

But, given the fragmented nature of Sarawak politics, is there an overarching political issue or popular antipathy towards the government of the day — like what Sabah experienced in the mid-1980s — that PSB could exploit?

In urban Sarawak, the main electoral battles are likely to be still fought between the Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP) for the government and DAP for the opposition.

In Malay-Melanau areas, the grip of Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) seems unbreakable.

If PSB is to make headway, it most likely will come from the Dayak-majority seats, where anti-establishment sentiment seems to be perpetually bubbling.

The Dayak-based Pesaka wing of PBB may yet hold its own against any challenges posed by PSB.

Therefore, it is the Dayak-majority Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) of the ruling coalition which may feel the brunt of any PSB onslaught.

And if the challenge to PRS comes to pass, the potentially formidable "Dayakism" factor in state politics may yet come full circle.

The Sarawak National Party (SNAP), the party of the state's first chief minister, the late Tan Sri Stephen Kalong Ningkan, ultimately became undone when his deputy, the late Datuk James Wong Kim Min, won the presidency of the party closely identified with Dayak political aspirations.

The ensuing ructions led to three new parties seeking to reclaim SNAP's mantle: Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS), the Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (the Sarawak in its name subsequently dropped) and PRS (itself an offshoot of PBDS).

It will be rather ironic if the two Wongs, proud political veterans of their day, end up sharing the same, somewhat melodramatic, fate that gives the lie to a much-ballyhooed thesis: that Sarawak party-politics travels on a relatively more promising multiracial trajectory than the rest of the country.


The writer views developments in the nation, region and wider world from his vantage point in Kuching, Sarawak