Why?
Saratok BN is a mess. The party representing the ruling coalition in Saratok, the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), formerly known as SPDP, is the weakest link in Sarawak BN.
Saratok MP William Mawan Ikom, who is former SPDP president and a senior state minister, is now party-less and an independent. What a turnaround for the veteran politician!
In the 13th general election, Mawan won Saratok narrowly after being chosen to contest the seat at the eleventh hour as a BN/SPDP candidate.
He managed to scrape through with a thin majority after a tough fight from PKR challenger Ali Biju.
The following year, his political career went through a tailspin when he resigned abruptly as SPDP president to form a new party, Teras. After the 2016 state election, he abandoned Teras and attempted to return to SPDP.
But new SPDP president Tiong King Sing had embarked on a new plan for his party. He changed the party’s name to PDP, minus the “S” for Sarawak, with the intention of eventually turning it into a national party.
It seems like Tiong and PDP have been unable to resolve Mawan’s predicament, and until this day, the Saratok MP remains unaligned with any party although he has expressed an interest in joining PBB.
PDP has only four parliamentary seats, and it would not be fair for PBB to “grab” Saratok from it. PBB had a record of “stealing” seats from its BN partners, especially during the time of strongman Abdul Taib Mahmud.
The other three PDP seats are Mas Gading, Bintulu and Baram. Bintulu can be considered a safe seat as its incumbent is Tiong, while Mas Gading and Baram can only be classified as fairly safe for BN/PDP.
Politics in Saratok is full of tales on disloyalty, betrayal and back-stabbing. This has been acknowledged by BN leaders in Saratok itself.
PDP deputy president Peter Nyarok, who lost the state seat of Krian, publicly declared that his defeat in the 2011 and 2016 state elections was due to disunity within the ruling coalition, which led to sabotage from among its own ranks.
“I lost in the 2011 state election because I was sabotaged. In 2016, I faced the same problems. There are so many internal squabbles within BN in the area,” Nyarok told The Borneo Post after the elections.
Who benefited from all the backstabbing and squabbles within BN in Krian? PKR’s newcomer Ali Biju.
Krian is one of the three state seats within the Saratok parliamentary constituency.
In 2013, Mawan’s selection as BN candidate for Saratok also angered Jelaing Mersat, the two-term Saratok MP from 2004 to 2013.
It is learnt that Mersat, who was also a deputy minister, and his supporters boycotted the elections.
For GE14, Mawan has again lobbied to defend his seat although many other PDP suitors are waiting in the wings.
But whether it is Mawan or a new face, PKR’s Ali Biju is standing by, waiting to throw all he has into the ring.
Within PKR circles, there seems to be a general consensus that if anyone can create an upset in Saratok, it is Ali Biju.
Come GE14, Ali could repeat his Krian feat in 2011, living up to his billing once again as the “giant slayer”.