SARAWAK Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Openg announced a cabinet reshuffle on Aug 22, about 2½ years after succeeding the late Tan Sri Adenan Satem and with roughly the same duration remaining before he is due to call a fresh state election.
The reshuffle is triggered by the resignation of Parti Sarawak Bersatu president Datuk Seri Wong Soon Koh, effective mid-August.
Wong was international trade and e-commerce minister as well as finance second minister.
In the reshuffle, Wong’s portfolios were shared out to two deputy chief ministers from Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB): Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas gets the finance portfolio while the trade brief is added to Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali’s ministerial responsibilities.
Datuk Abdul Karim Hamzah, the tourism, arts, culture, youth and sports minister (also from PBB), now heads two ministries as Youth and Sports are hived off to form a separate ministry.
Datuk Lee Kim Shin from Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) is newly promoted as a full minister, in charge of transport, a newly-created portfolio.
His position as assistant minister will be filled by another SUPP leader, Datuk Sebastian Ting.
As it turned out, the third deputy chief minister, Tan Sri Dr James Masing, who is president of Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS), was in charge of Infrastructure Development and Transportation and now heads the Infrastructure and Ports Development Ministry, having to give up part of his original functions to the newly created Transport Ministry which, Abang Johari explained, will be largely responsible for urban transportation.
But while an anomaly and political irritant was removed from the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) state coalition with the resignation of Wong, whose party was outside GPS, a minor one was retained as Wong’s former party deputy, Datuk Dr Jerip Susil, who abruptly quit the party recently and is now party-less, remains as the new assistant minister of transport.
There was no official explanation as to why a special carve-out was made for Dr Jerip to remain part of the state administration despite him not being a member of any of the four GPS parties.
The major takeaway from the reshuffle is that the GPS backbone party, PBB, is consolidating its political gains and reinforcing its already dominant flanks in preparation for the next state election.
The apparent beef-up of Uggah’s political position is clearly targeted at securing the potential soft underbelly of PBB’s political juggernaut: Dayak popular support.
This is being buttressed by the simultaneous announcement that Datu Jaul Samion is confirmed to become only the second Iban state secretary of Sarawak since 1963, although he is evidently past the official civil-service retirement age.
While SUPP has finally clawed back a second ministerial representative in the Sarawak cabinet, how much this will convince the Chinese electorate in the state that it is back as a solid partner in government like it used to be will be open to debate.
The latest reshuffle unfortunately reinforces a general perception that PBB takes all the key decisions affecting the state’s administration and likely will deepen a persistent complaint of the party’s coalition partners that they are being marginalised.
PBB now has eight full cabinet members, SUPP two and PRS one.
The cabinet rejigging also does nothing to deflect the impression that too much control is now concentrated in the hands of the chief minister himself, especially since Abang Johari assumed that office.
He also takes personal charge of the powerful Finance and Economic Planning and Urban Development and Resources ministries.
State opposition party DAP has weighed in on the reshuffle, with deputy chairman David Wong pronouncing it as “lopsided” and aimed at solidifying PBB’s position within GPS. Wong also theorised that far from displaying confidence ahead of the state polls, GPS is actually hedging against it losing its majority in the next state assembly and having to enter into a grand coalition with the opposition alliance.
Fellow DAP leader Alice Lau lamented a lack of the spirit of partnership in GPS and said: “What I see is the component parties being submissive to PBB, much like the MCA, the MIC and Gerakan to Umno.”
In contrast, Lau added: “There is no domineering component party in PH (Pakatan Harapan).”
The political battle-lines seem quite clear-cut. GPS will go into electoral combat with PBB steeled for battle against PH largely on the dominant party’s own steam. It must hope that any effort to link it to the fate that has befallen Umno will fail.
The writer views developments in the nation, the region and the wider world from his vantage point in Kuching, Sarawak