Keeping the Sarawak dream alive
One year on and Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Abang Openg of Sarawak is still the no-frills pe erson that he has always been. He has taken the bull by the horn ns in pursuing the claims for greater state rights, while his pla ans for seve
THE house of Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg has often been the subject of chatter among journalists in Kuching.
The thing about the homes of many Sarawak leaders is that they tend to be so grandiose and over the top that they make your jaw drop and your eyes pop out.
Well, Abang Johari’s house is one of those exceptions. The Sarawak Chief Minister’s bungalow home does not look very different from those of his neighbours. The chief hint that this is no ordinary house is the security personnel at the gate and the visitors’ cars parked outside.
As Abang Johari explained later, it was an ordinary bungalow that he slowly renovated over the years. The inside is still very much the original house, while the outside is newer and more modern.
The house, in that sense, is a metaphor of who Abang Johari is – someone who has come far in life, yet deep down he has hardly changed as a person. More than that, the house as well as his moderate lifestyle has become an indicator – among journalists, at least – that he has not used his position to amass unseemly wealth.
As our cameraman Zulazhar Sheblee set up his equipment for the interview, my colleague Sharon Ling and I checked out the framed photographs that were like a chronicle of the Chief Minister’s long political journey that started back in 1981.
The most arresting shot was one of him chatting with the Sultan of Brunei and Tun Abdul Taib Mahmud, two of the richest and most powerful men in the Borneo island.
A huge portrait of his late parents hung high up on the wall. They looked like a pretty serious couple unlike their son, a natural smiler.
His father Tun Abang Openg was Sarawak’s first governor and among the first handful of native district officers in the colonial government.
That is the second interesting side to Abang Johari, or Abang Jo as he is known to all – he came from a family that is part of the who’s who of Sarawak, yet he is famously down-to-earth and without airs.
It might have something to do with his toothy grin and the way his hair keeps flopping over his forehead, but even the humblest of villagers are not afraid to approach him.
As Sharon and I giggled over a picture of a young Abang Johari, almost unrecognisable from now, his wife Datin Patinggi Juma’ani Tuanku Bujang came down the wooden staircase to say hello.
Juma’ani has smooth, milky white skin and seemed quite shy for a politician’s wife. Their marriage was a union of two elite families because Juma’ani’s father was the second governor of Sarawak.
It is quite a unique situation
– two governors and one Chief Minister in the family.
Juma’ani was adopted at birth from an ethnic Chinese family. One might say she was born under a lucky star because her adopted family loved her and had the means to care for her. She met her birth parents for the first time when she got married and when Abang Johari was made a minister, her entire birth family came for a get-together.
Abang Johari eventually came out from another part of the house, where he was being interviewed by the state media unit about a special sitting of the State Legislative Assembly that will take place a day after our interview.
The special sitting is to mark the State Assembly’s 150th year. Apparently, they consider the General Council convened way back in 1867 as the first equivalent sitting.
Of course, the subtext is that the Sarawakians are telling those of us from Malaya – their term for the peninsula – that they have a long history of government that dates back beyond 1963 when Malaysia was formed.
In short, they are saying: No need to teach us how to run our state, we have been doing it for a long time.
It was also quite momentous for Abang Johari because when the assembly marked its 100th year, the governor who addressed the special sitting was none other than his father and 50 years on, the son is the Chief Minister.
Abang Johari marked his first
year as Chief Minister on Jan 13 and, as he put it, he took over during a time of mourning. His bold and popular predecessor Tan Sri Adenan Satem had died after only about three years in office.
“God loves him more,” he said of Adenan’s death.
Adenan had lit the flame to the Sarawak Dream during his brief stint in power.
It was also a rather populist dream – abolishing bridge tolls, going after illegal loggers, reducing electricity tariffs, concessions to Chinese voters and even distancing himself from his controversial predecessor, the man Sarawakians know as peh mor because of his snowy-white hair.
Most important of all, Adenan initiated the move towards greater autonomy for the state.
He had raised the expectations of Sarawakians and that is now Abang Johari’s challenge. Can he fill those big shoes?
Abang Johari has openly said that he cannot be a clone of Adenan, as they are two completely different personalities.
But he wants to continue the “Sarawak for Sarawakians” momentum started by Adenan. The state wants to assert its rights according to the terms and spirit of the Malaysia Agreement (MA63), which allows Sarawak some degree of autonomy over its own administration and territorial rights (read: offshore oil).
He has sent a delegation to London to examine British documents on MA63. More recently, a ministerial motion supported by both government and Opposition members of the State Assembly gave the state government the mandate to form a task force to negotiate with the Federal Government.
It is a touchy issue for the federal side but Sarawak has set the ball rolling and who knows, history may be made on our eastern shores.
Abang Johari said it does not mean Sarawak wants to go it alone.
“We’ll be in Malaysia forever. We just want what is due to us,” he said.
He said the state is pursuing the issue because it feels that Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak is open to ideas and discussion.
“You know who was in charge for so many years before Najib. If we raised the issue then, he would have used the Internal Security Act and all those other laws on us,” he said.
He had told the Prime Minister that “fate brought us together to do something for Sarawak” since their fathers were signatories to MA63 in their then capacities as prime minister and Sarawak governor.
“If we (Sarawakians) are happy, Malaysia will be happy. The family will be fragmented if one member is not happy,” he added.
Abang Johari has also announced several big ticket projects that have become the talk of the town. He has proposed an LRT system in Kuching that will eventually extend to Serian about 50km away, while buses that run on hydrogen will be tested soon.
A RM1bil project to establish a state water grid that will channel piped water through Sarawak has met with a warmer reception.
It is sad that there are still rural households that do not have piped water and electricity.
He is also enthusiastic about implementing a digital economy to take the state into the modern era. The state opposition has called it hot air, but he has allocated RM1bil for the Internet infrastructure. The state also has its own bank – the Development Bank of Sarawak.
Every new political leader these days is concerned about what one might call the “Mahathir syndrome” – encountering interference and sabotage from previous leaders.
Abang Johari is thankful that Taib has settled in as Governor with great dignity and decorum. The state government still makes courtesy calls on Taib to inform him about issues and, said Abang Johari, Taib would offer advice and tell them the decision is theirs to make.
Back in the 1980s, Taib himself experienced what Najib is now going through. His late uncle Tun Rahman Yakub, who retired as chief minister to become the governor, tried to topple him in what is now known as the Ming Court affair as the coup was hatched from the hotel of the same name in Kuala Lumpur.
Taib survived and the experience is said to have sharpened his survival instincts. It is unlikely that he has a good opinion of what Dr Mahathir is up to.
Abang Johari is a team player and did not make a fuss when Adenan was picked over him for the top job even though he was then the deputy president of Parti Pesaka Bumiputra Bersatu (PBB), the leading party in the state Barisan Nasional, while Adenan was the information chief.
“It was God’s will. I accepted it, just as it is God’s will that I am here today,” he said.
He was also very grateful and several months after he got the job, he held a special party convention to acknowledge the contribution of past leaders like Taib, Adenan and Tan Sri Alfred Jabu.
Abang Johari will be facing his first big test as Chief Minister when the 14th General Election is called.
The Opposition won six of the 31 parliamentary seats in Sarawak in 2013. Abang Johari’s challenge is to check their advance and win back a few seats.
Asked whether he would ban personalities from the peninsula from entering the state to campaign, he said, “Yes!” without hesitation.
“People like your Jamal (Datuk Seri Jamal Yunos). We do not want people like that sowing seeds of racial tension and extremism in our state,” he said.
The Muslim-only launderette issue was watched with horror and amusement on the Sarawak side.
“It’s stupid. In our Melanau community here, we have Christians and Muslims living in the same house. You mean we should have two washing machines and two kitchens?” he said.
Sarawak has become some sort of beacon of moderation for many sensible Malaysians and Abang Johari wants to keep it that way.