State Reform Party (Star) president Dr Patau Rubis is trying to wrest back the predominantly-Bidayuh constituency of Mas Gading in Kuching Division from the Barisan Nasional incumbent Dr Tiki Lafe -- this time using a Sarawak National Party (Snap) ticket.

This is one of the remaining 22 parliamentary constituencies being contested in Sarawak that are being watched closely, for several reasons.

Patau once represented the then Bau-Lundu parliamentary constituency as a Snap MP, besides being a former Tasik Biru (Bau) state assemblyperson. He failed to retain the seats after he left Snap and formed Star in 1996.

Recently, his membership in Snap was reinstated by the new leaders of the party. Subsequently, Star and Snap formed a pact to fight the current elections.

'Feeling very good'

This time, Patau feels he has a better chance standing under Snap ticket .Two prospective Independents were disqualified on technical grounds, leaving the contest to be a straight fight between Patau and Tiki, who is a Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) vice-president and federal deputy minister of national unity and family development.

"I'm feeling very good," Patau told malaysiakini at his clinic in Sri Tonga in Kuching yesterday. "There is a network to ensure we can win," he added.

He said in fact one of the prospective Independents Jihim Milos from Kampung Pueh, a Dayak Selako longhouse in Sematan, had withdrawn when he heard that he (Patau) was standing on a Snap ticket instead of a former state customs and excise director Frankie Nyumboi.

Patau said that he had originally intended to stand in Mambong against BN incumbent Dr James Dawos, but at the last minute had accepted Tiki's public challenge to stand in Mas Gading instead.

According to Patau, Tiki has stated that "if Patau were to stand this time, I will win by an even bigger majority."

In the 1999 polls, Patau, then the incumbent and standing on a Star ticket, lost by a 3820-vote majority to Tiki who polled 10,584 votes in a straight fight.

A seasoned political observer familiar with Mas Gading's local politics said Tiki could expect strong support from Tanjung Datu (formerly Lundu) which forms one of the two state constituencies in Mas Gading.

The Tanjung Datu state assemblyperson is Ranum Mina whose Sarawak United People's Party (Supp) has a strong local network among local voting groups such as in towns and kampungs.

Patau has lost some of his strongholds in what is now Tasik Biru state constituency, the remaining part of Tanjung Datu, after the delineation of electoral boundaries, moving them out into the new parliamentary constituency of Mambong.

Trailing a little

Mambong was the only additional parliamentary seat during the 1999 general election. The seat will see a straight fight between Dawos and Star newcomer Mangan anak Ngandok.

According to the same observer, "Patau is still trailing a little."

But the Star president is confident that within the next one week after visiting the electorate again, he will be able to swing more votes to his side and win narrowly.

Meanwhile, the two prospective Independents for Mas Gading parliamentary constituency -- Apin Baeng, 41, from Kampong Sebobog in Bau, and Jihim Milos, 50, from Kampung Pueh, Sematan - withdrew for the race at the last minute.

Apin said he did not bring enough money to cover the election deposit, both as candidate to stand (RM10,000) and RM5000 to be paid to the local council as deposit for putting up posters.

He said he didn't realise that the election deposit had been raised to RM10,000.

Jihim, a cousin of BN-Supp state assemblyperson for Tanjung Datu, Ranum Mina, also of Kampung Pueh, withdrew from the race when he saw it was Patau who was contesting against Tiki.

Jihim told malaysiakini today that he would be campaigning for Patau and described the Star president's chances of winning as "very high."