Is trouble brewing within the Sarawak National Party (Snap), one of the four components of Sarawak's ruling Barisan Nasional, ahead of the imminent state elections?

It all started recently with talk that the present incumbent for the state seat of Tasik Biru (Bau), a predominantly Bidayuh constituency near Kuching, might be replaced.

Last week Snap secretary-general and former member of parliament Justin Jinggut announced somewhat prematurely that the party had recommended that Peter Nansian, an accountant by training, be retained as the BN's candidate for Tasik Biru.

None of the political parties in Sarawak have formally announced their list of candidates for the next elections, seen to be about three months away, even though some new faces have been going to the ground.

Tasik Biru was once represented by Dr Patau Rubis, the then senior vice president of Snap and an assistant minister unceremoniously sacked from the state cabinet by the Chief Minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud. He stood against Nansian and lost in the last state elections.

Now, according to some newspaper reports, another doctor wants to take on Nansian, who is also chairman of the Sarawak Housing and Development Commission. He is Snap's Dr Tiki Lafe, the BN member of parliament for Mas Gading and Deputy Minister of National Unity and Community Development.

Meteoric rise

Dr Tiki is a new party member and was nominated as a BN candidate in the last parliamentary elections. He beat Dr Patau Rubis by a small margin and was immediately appointed Deputy Minister, a move that created some unhappiness within certain quarters in Snap. His rise within Snap and politics is considered meteoric.

The MP for Baram Jacob Sagan, an agriculturalist by training, who has been with the party much longer and who felt he was equally entitled for the same consideration, was slighted by the move. His supporters even campaigned against Dr Tiki's appointment.

As in the case of Nansian and Tasik Biru, the talk which most local English and Chinese press subsequently picked up and reported was that Dr Tiki wanted another Bidayuh, Frankie Nyumboi, the former Director of Customs and Excise, to take over Tasik Biru.

Talk of the rift between the two Snap leaders and their supporters reached such a stage that it created concern among the Snap leadership. The English-language local daily Borneo Post carried a front-page report on Friday quoting Dr Tiki as denying the allegations made against him, saying at one stage that "I don't even know who Frankie Nyumboi is."

He admitted that he might not have been in regular touch with Nansian because of his work lately as Deputy Minister. But he denied any rift, much less that he tried to undermine Nansian's position.

After that, the Snap secretary-general called both men into his office for a talk and they later emerged and announced to the waiting press that there was no rift between them.

In a front-page picture splashed across most local papers on Sunday, Dr Tiki was shown with his usual smile and Nansian looking a little uncomfortable with Jinggut behind them putting his hands on the shoulders of both men.

Nansian, in denying reports of a rift between them, said Dr Tiki even attended one of his functions recently and also had lunch in his house. He implied that these were not actions consistent with reports of a rift between the two men.

Last chance

But party insiders and political observers remain convinced that the rift has been real and not just between the two party leaders, who are both Bidayuh, but also between their supporters and encouraged to a certain extent by several disgruntled party leaders within and outside the party.

Before a battery of press photographers and reporters at the Snap headquarters on Saturday, both Dr Tiki and Nansian shook hands and alluded to the rift reports as being engineered by certain quarters both within and outside the Barisan Nasional.

There is perhaps a certain amount of truth in this as according to observers, Dr Patau Rubis, leader of the opposition Star party, sees the coming state elections as probably his last chance to win back his old seat.

"If anyone can drive a wedge between Tiki and Nansian, that can only be advantageous to him," was how one observer put it.

State elections are expected to be held either in February or March next year.

TONY THIEN is a freelance writer based in Kuching.