Taib: "Whatever happens, protect Sarawak"

Taib Mahmud's message, it is understood, is a reminder to Sarawak MPs and assemblymen who have shifted loyalties and are kow-towing to Umno leaders.

KUCHING - Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud, who is believed to have met with Home Minister Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, several BN component party leaders and the Inspector General of Police Khalid Bakar here this morning,  has reminded the state coalition’s MPs and assemblymen to “protect” Sarawak at whatever cost.

Zahid, who is also Umno vice-president, however did not meet waiting media who were instead told by Home Ministry officials that it was merely a courtesy call on the CM.

Zahid’s meeting with Taib today follows a weekend of media buzz and rumours over the latter’s resignation and successor, after he met with his PBB supreme council members on Saturday and state BN assemblymen and MPs yesterday.

Taib however did not specify his departure date or who will succeed him during both meetings. But at the meeting yesterday, Taib made one point singularly clear to Sarawak elected representatives  - “protect” Sarawak, “whatever it is” .

“That’s the message from the chief minister…He said there is nothing wrong in protecting our rights. “(Because) that is the arrangement we had when we agreed to form Malaysia in 1963.

“We must stick to it. Whatever it is we must stick to it. This should not be eroded,” said state BN secretary general Dr Stephen Rundi Utom recapping Taib’s message to reporters here.

The message, it is understod is a reminder to Umno leaning reps in the federal and state cabinets to realise their loyalties and not kow tow to Putrajaya. It is commonly known here that Umno has a foot at Sarawak’s door through MPs and ministers who have been ‘bought over’.

Umno’s claws Taib’s and Rundi’s personal reminders hinge on the crippling effect Umno has had on neighbouring Sabah’s social fabric and self-esteem.

Sarawak is haunted by the goings-on in Sabah where Umno’s insidious entry in 1990 and its covert citizenship-for-votes  agenda marginalised the state’s native Christian population and re-engineered the state’s demographics.

Rundi, who is also PBB secretary general, said Sarawak was not Malaya and “so we have to treat it that way (differently)” especially on the issues of race and religion.
“Nobody else can understand the situation better than we Sarawakians.

“We have over 30 tribes  and sub-tribed in Sarawak that need to be protected and who need to live in harmony.

“And to do that, the government of the day must be able to feel the sensitivities and aspirations of everyone.

“We must therefore be able to see which political party or parties belong to Sarawak.

“We must make sure that Sarawak is safe and Sarawak’s rights are protected.  There is no question whatsoever outside that,” he said.

FMT