Asfia and his grandiose plan (Part 1 of 2)

by Sebanaku Sarawak

KUCHING: Don't have mercy!!! Go for a kill at the earliest opportunity!!! But if you miss the opportunity, then get ready to be killed!!!

Many politicians subscribe to this 'to-kill-or-be-killed' mindset. As a matter of fact, it could be said that virtually all politicians are subscribing to this mindset.

The reason is that it is the only way to go up in politics. It is for this reason that not many are willing to be in politics.

Even the smartest man on the earth would think zillion times before he agrees to any offer to join politics.

You ought to be part angel and part devil.

There are many examples on this unholy union of angel-and-devil in politicians.

In respect of Sarawak, one of the most cunning and shrewd and influential groups in the Sarawak politics is led by the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) speaker Dato Sri Mohd Asfia Awang Nassar.

And his right hand man is the Asajaya state assemblyman Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah who is the Chief Political Secretary to the Chief Minister Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud.

This group has occupied a favourable position in Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) when it managed to successfully positioning itself in the era when the Tanjung Datu state assemblyman Tan Sri Adenan Satem was in the political wilderness after being out of favour with Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud.

As a matter of fact, Dato Sri Mohd Asfia Awang Nassar who played an important role in influencing Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud to get rid of Tan Sri Adenan Satem who was then regarded by many as the favourite as to be the next Chief Minister.

Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hassan, who was said to be the right hand man of Tan Sri Adenan Satem, was present when Dato Sri Mohd Asfia Awang Nassar bad mouthed Tan Sri Adenan Satem infront of Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud but he didn't do anything to defend the Tanjung Datu state assemblyman.

On why he did that, only Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hassan himself knows what were the reasons.

However, when Tan Sri Adenan Satem was no longer in the picture, Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hassan was seen as having a potential to be the next Chief Minister, with Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg as his possible rival.

While Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hassan was publicly seen as trying his luck to win the coveted trophy, Dato Sri Mohd Asfia Awang Nassar decided to play a behind-the-scene political game.

He and Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hassan were aiming for the same prize but with different methods or approaches.

Dato Sri Mohd Asfia Awang Nasser knew that it was almost impossible for him to compete against Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hassan or Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg head-on because the two were in a better position to go around the state to promote themselves by virtue of being ministers.

Although Dato Sri Mohd Asfia Awang Nassar held a very important position, he just could not use it as a platform to canvass for supports from the rakyat or PBB members.

Therefore, his dream to be elected as the President of PBB, and subsequently be the Chief Minister was only going to remain as a dream.

No matter how hard he tried to exert his influence, it was very difficult to go beyond the Semop constituency.

To overcome this shortcoming, Dato Sri Mohd Asfia Awang Nassar hatched a plan - i.e. he was to get enough number of state assemblymen and Members of Parliament to be on his side.

He knew that in PBB, even an ordinary state assemblyman could be a Chief Minister if he has the support of the other people's representatives.

With this in mind, he started to recruit state assemblymen to join him.

He used his power as the chairman of the Legal and Constitution Committee (LCC) in the party to help his supporters to stage coups d'état in a number of branches and rantings.

Here is his modus of operandi:-

* He asked his men including YB Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah and PBB Executive Secretary Awang Bujang Awang Antek to represent the PBB HQ to supervise illegally conducted meetings at branches and rantings. His men would supervise the meetings as if they were 'legally' conducted.

* Whenever the affected branches or rantings lodged complaints, he would ask Awang Bujang Awang Antek to be a mediator. Awang Bujang Awang Antek's main task was to solve the problems by getting the complainants, who normally represented the majority groups in branches or rantings, to compromise with the aggressors, who normally the minority groups in branches or rantings. Awang Bujang Awang Antek would hold several meetings between these two groups until he managed to convince the majority groups to compromise with the minority groups for the sake of the party unity. Thus, there were many branches or rantings that saw the majority groups had to give way to the minority groups to occupy the important posts. The sacrifices were made in the name of the party unity.

* However, when the majority groups were not happy that they were forced to compromise with the minority groups, Dato Sri Mohd Asfia Awang Nassar himself would chair the meetings. What he would normally do during these meetings was to show his support to the victims and scolded the aggressors for being power greedy. He would cited the articles in the party constitution that were against the aggressors. After the meeting, the majority groups would feel happy because they thought they had finally won the battle but what they didn't know was Dato Asri Mohd Asfia Awang Nassar was in cohort with the aggressors. Despite of what being said by Dato Sri Mohd Asfia Awang Nassar in the meetings, no action would be taken against the aggressors to fix the situation - the aggressors would remain as 'legitimate' leaders. The majority groups were grinning from ear to ear when walking out from a meeting room thinking Dato Sri Mohd Asfia Awang Nassar was to help them but what they didn't know was Dato Sri Mohd Asfia Awang Nassar was holding a separate meeting with the key leaders of the minority groups to prepare a contingency plan should the majority groups went berserk.

* When the majority groups got to know about this, their only way to seek a legal redress was by lodging official complaints to the LCC. However, since Dato Sri Mohd Asfia Awang Nassar was in the full controll of the committee, no way for the majority groups would be able to get a fair hearing. All the committee members are his cohorts, with an exception of the PBB Youth Chief Fadillah Yusuf who is also the Deputy Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation. Dato Sri Mohd Asfia Awang Nassar would always ensure that the committee would convene its 'urgent' meeting when the Youth Chief was not in Kuching. With the absence of YB Fadillah Yusuf, it would be easier for him and YB Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah to 'guide' other members of the committee to arrive at the desired decision which Dato Sri Mohd Asfia Awang Nassar would personally convey to Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud. He would tell Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud that all efforts had been exhausted to get all parties to compromise but the majority group (who was described as the minority group by Dato Sri Mohd Asfia Awang Nassar when he was explaining the 'true' situation to Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud) declined to compromise. He subsequently assured Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud that there was nothing to be worried because all were done in accordance to the law.

He had put his supporters to important posts in many branches and rantings before the recent party convention.

Thus, the first phase of the plan had been successfully executed with an exception of the Jemoreng branch.

But the failure would not disrupt the grand plan because Jemoreng was the only branch which he failed to put his men to power.

For his second phase of the plan, he relied on his right hand man YB Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah to carry it out.

As a matter of fact, Dato Sri Mohd Asfia Awang Nassar is now in the second phase of his grandiose plan.