Abang Johari is having a headache over key members of his core team

by Sebanaku Sarawak

KUCHING:  Small cracks are already appearing in the Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) Deputy President Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Abang Haji Openg team over a plan to hold an Information Workshop for all the party's branch leaders.

All four key members of his core team of five members – namely YB Datuk Abdul Wahab Abdul Aziz, YB Dr. Abdul Rahman Junaidi, YB Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali, YB Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah – were strongly against the idea of ‘hijacking’  the PBB Information Chief role which is now performed by the Special Advisor to the Chief Minister’s Department Tan Sri Adenan Satem.

The idea was mooted by Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg’s most trusted man Ibrahim Baki who is also his deputy in the PBB Satok Branch.

The gist of the idea was to impress Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud as well as other leaders that Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Abang Haji Openg could perform better than Tan Sri Adenan Satem in respect of performing the role.

The group of four leaders was adamantly against the idea because it was inappropriate for Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Abang Haji Openg to perform the Information Chief role when there was no ‘instruction’ from the party president to do so.

And more over, they were scared that Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud might not like the idea and would cause all of them to be in the hot soup.

They knew that Tan Sri Adenan Satem was now the ears and eyes of the party president by virtue of being appointed as the Special Advisor to the Chief Minister Department.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard they argued with Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg, they just could not convince him not to listen to Ibrahim Baki.

It was as if Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Abang Haji Openg was being “possessed” by a ghost – who was in the form of Ibrahim Baki.

Although Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Abang Haji Openg was seemed to agree with the arguments, he just could not say no to his most trusted man.

To-date, only a handful of branches had agreed to take part in the unsanctioned information workshop.

Apparently the disagreement over the information workshop had caused Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Abang Haji Openg to be divided into two camps – i.e. the Ibrahim Baki camp and Group of 4.

As it is now, Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Abang Haji Openg is having a difficult time to get these two groups to bury their differences because they are having strong feeling against each other – especially between Ibrahim Baki and YB Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah.

However, the solidarity among the Group Four is not that strong because they are together just because of Ibrahim Baki.

Datuk Abdul Wahab Abdul Aziz is not happy with the junior key members of the Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Abang Haji Openg for not giving him the kind of respect he deserves to get as a senior member of the core team.

And the ‘sudden’ membership of YB Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah into the core team has also caused all key members, including Ibrahim Baki, to be wary of him.

Basically they don’t trust each other. And they also don’t like each other.