The Taib Succession Dilemma

Taib just does not want to make a decision about his successor. That is clear. No matter what he says or does. He is in a dilemma because he does not want to make the biggest mistake of his entire "career", one that could haunt him for the rest of his ever shortening life.

He has made many mistakes of course, although he pretends to know all and to be always right - the mere fact that nobody in PBB dares to dissent does not make it any right, even if this charade has kept him in power for so long. This is the evil power of deception and the politics of manipulation.

He knows who his successor should be and it is not anyone who is presently or has previously been in PBB (and that both includes as well as excludes his own son, Suleiman Abdul Rahman). However, he still hopes to deny reality.

If this were not the case surely it would be an easy matter for him to just decide who it should be from among the ranks of the present line-up of PBB. There is so much misplaced and misused talent there if he just wanted someone like himself to take over. What is so difficult about it, especially since he has known and worked with them for such a long time? However, Taib also knows that none of them would be good for Sarawak and that paradoxically is why he has kept them all out of the equation.

Not that he is or has been any better for Sarawak of course. They are all so scared of dissent that they have to manipulate the PBB party polls to ensure that there are no contests, thereby depriving their members the right - at the very least - to democratically elect their leaders. If they could do away with general elections they probably gladly would, but since they cannot they have devised other means of manipulation such as bribery and intimidation. Some semblance of democracy must after all be maintained.

Do you think that Taib doesn't know what he has done to Sarawak and what needs to be done to undo what he has done? He knows it better than anyone else. He knows that Sarawak needs reform and that there is no one in PBB capable of undertaking such reform, least of all himself. PBB, just like UMNO and the rest of the BN baggage train, is incapable of reform unless it is led by a real reformist-minded leader. There is none, not even pretenders.

Taib, more than anyone else in PBB, knows that it cannot be business as usual. If PBB tries to carry on with business as usual, even with Taib himself at the helm, that will be the end of PBB and Taib as well. As they say, the writing is on the wall.

Taib has deceived everyone, including members of his own party, that what he has been doing has been good and right for Sarawak, knowing that the opposite has been true. His dilemma now is how to undo all the damage without admitting his wrongs and wrongdoings. He knows that he will be remembered for the latter if he does not undertake the former or at the very least put someone in place to succeed him who can do it without succumbing to PBB's divisive, destructive and corrupt politics - largely caused by him.

Taib's successor may very well be rejected by the older echelon of PBB, who are in any event due for replacement, but with the younger generation with him he will have to ride the tiger and conquer it. Now is the time for Taib to be bold enough to put a successor in place who will do it for it is only by doing so that Taib will redeem himself. Will Taib be bold enough to admit and attempt to right his own wrongs? Does such a person exist in the whole of Sarawak?

If he does, you can be sure that Taib knows who that person is and what he (Taib) needs to do.

Anything else will lead to unmitigated disaster and an uncertain and bleak future for Sarawak and its people.