KUCHING: Although “Team Adenan” has won the Sarawak state election with a convincing margin, Tan Sri Adenan Satem cannot rest on his laurels.
The Chief Minister has a lot on his hands with the next task of choosing his Cabinet members. Not only that, he has to appease the warring factions between SUPP and UPP, as well as SPDP and Teras.
Members of UPP and Teras might have had to resign from their breakaway parties in order to contest as Barisan Nasional direct candidates but deep rivalries remain.
Yesterday, the UPP-linked winners all declined to speak on record when they were asked to comment on their next move.
One of them said the five UPP-linked winners were meeting with top leaders from the breakaway group for a brainstorming session here yesterday.
More details are expected to emerge today.
SUPP president Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian could not be reached at all. Just after the results came in, he told The Star that SUPP would welcome the UPP-linked winners back to the party.
In past elections, the state Cabinet would usually be unveiled by the Chief Minister around a week after the results were announced.
“The best assumption is that Adenan already had something in mind when he decided on the candidates list,” said Universiti Malaysia Sarawak political analyst Associate Prof Jeniri Amir.
“Continuity in terms of the Cabinet’s make-up would be important for him because of factors, like keeping the component parties happy.
“But on the SUPP-UPP and SPDP-Teras issues, it’s going to be tough. It would have been easier if there were stronger winners and weaker winners,” he added.
SUPP won in seven seats while UPP-linked direct candidates won in five.
SPDP contested five seats, losing two rural seats to PKR’s incumbents. All three ex-Teras members won.
Adenan’s previous Cabinet comprised nine ministers. They were assisted by 19 assistant ministers.
After the state election in 2011, PBB deputy president Tan Sri Alfred Jabu was the only deputy chief minister.
Previously, there were two deputy chief ministers – Jabu and Tan Sri George Chan of SUPP, who lost his seat in the 2011 election.
Jabu did not contest this round, retiring and making way for his son, PBB Youth deputy chief Gerald Rentap, who won Layar, the seat Jabu senior had held for nine terms since 1974.
PBB and PRS both won all the seats they contested. A trio of PBB-linked direct candidates also won, making PBB by far the strongest party in Sarawak’s Barisan.
Nonetheless, PRS’ 11 winners could be given plum positions in the state Cabinet.
Party president Tan Sri Dr James Masing reminded that not only did his party win 100% of the seats it contested (11), three of their opponents lost their deposits.
“PRS has completely rebuffed the DAP’s rural drive in the Dayak heartland,” Dr Masing said in a statement.
Jeniri said that other than deciding how many Cabinet members to take from each party, Adenan will have to carefully select who is going to be ministers or assistant ministers.
“He knows SUPP-UPP, SPDP-Teras cannot go on their separate paths. He can’t have the whole thing repeated in the next general or state elections. One way or another, he has to fix it once and for all,” he added.
On Adenan’s refusal to answer questions on Saturday night on the strong speculation that SUPP’s Dr Sim would be made a Deputy Chief Minister, Jeniri said: “Because he is tired of being caught in controversies. If he answered one question, there would be the next question, there would be no end to it.
“He wasn’t going to discuss something as sensitive as that on live TV.”
With Jabu’s retirement, Adenan’s next deputy will be a new face or two new faces if he opts to go back to having deputy chief ministers.
Chinese community leader Temenggong Lu Kim Yong said SUPP and UPP must reconcile.
“A lot of people want to see both factions sit downand come to a consensus. As long as they don’t, they could give the advantage away to the opposition parties,” he said.
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