KUCHING: Long serving Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud has said is will resign from his post after naming his successor on Monday.
He is to meet leaders of the State Barisan Nasional component parties tomorrow to seek their consensus on his successor.
Taib, when approached by reporters after chairing the joint meeting of Parti Pesaka Bumiputra Bersatu (PBB) supreme council and party caucus, said he will name his successor in two days time.
It is learned that Taib is likely to pick former federal minister Adenan Satem, who is also PBB publicity chief, as his successor, ahead of second deputy president and housing minister Abang Johari Open and senior vice president and second minister of public utilities Awang Tengah Ali Hasan.
A supreme council member, who spoke on condition that his name not be disclosed, said Taib spoke highly and many times of Adenan at the meeting.
“We believe that he was giving us the strong hints that he will pick Adenan, and not Abang Johari and Awang Tengah. I think he has already made up his mind who he wants to succeed him, but he will not disclose name now,” the supreme council member said.
“But Adenan will only be the chief minister for a short period as he will not be contesting in 2016, and after that, someone else will take over,” the supreme council member said.
Taib himself has been proposed as the next Governor, taking over from Abang Muhammad Salahuddin Abang Barieng, whose three-month extended term ends on Feb 28.
Meanwhile, the party supreme council and party caucus, which met for six hours at the party headquarters, have unanimously given Taib the mandate to pick his successor and leader of the Barisan Nasional coalition up to the next state election due in 2016.
“Although he has not been given any timeframe to pick a successor, I believe that he will make his choice within a reasonable time,” PBB permanent chairman Amar Asfia Awang Nasar told reporters after the meeting.
“Once he has named his successor, he will step down as chief minister,” Asfia, who is also the Sarawak State Assembly Speaker, said.
Asfia said that naming the right successor is of paramount important because he will be the next chief executive of the state.
“Taib can’t be naming just anybody or any party member. It has got to be someone who has a certain calibre and of a certain standing in the party … the one who commands respect from the members.
“Whoever is picked by Taib to be his successor, the supreme council and the caucus will give our full backing. This is the pledge that we have made to him at the meeting,” Asfia said.
Asfia also said that the party nominated Taib to be the next Governor of Sarawak because “we believe that the appointment as the Governor is the highest honour that the State can give to him in view of his immense and tremendous contributions to the state and country.”
Asfia also attempted to allay fears among the Sarawakians that Taib’s departure would cause political instability.
“We wish to assure that Sarawak will remain the bastion of peace and racial harmony and it is for this reason that the successor is someone whom we all can trust to lead.
“We also wish to remind Sarawak-based companies listed on Bursa Malaysia not to be scared with the changeover in the chief minister. Nothing will change, ” he said when told that many Sarawak-based companies listed on the stock exchange saw their share prices declined on speculations that Taib was going to step down.
The announcement of the impending of Taib’s resignation and his nomination as the next Governor ended months of speculations over whether Taib, who has been the chief minister since March 26, 1981, would finally call it a day.
Taib took over the helm from his uncle Abdul Rahman Yaakub, who was later appointed the Governor. He entered politics in 1963 and was made a state minister under the then chief minister Stephen Kalong Ningkan.
After he was sacked by Ningkan during a constitutional crisis on the land issue, he was appointed an assistant minister in the federal government administration.
He resigned as minister of federal territory in early 1981 to contest in the Sebandi by-election.
After winning in the by-election, he became the chief minister. - SP
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