COMMENT Umno is plotting day and night along the corridors of power in Putrajaya on replacing the Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) in Sarawak.

The party doesn't expect to wait for too much longer. Party leader and Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud, 74, the uncrowned Brown Rajah of Sarawak, will bow out sooner rather than later.

azlan So, is it time for Umno to call in the favours from its long-time proxies and move in for the kill? There's nothing like the bossman dropping all pretence and taking over.

After all, the Rahman-Taib dynasty had more than its fair share of luck since Stephen Kalong Ningkan got booted out, not once, but twice as the chief minister.

Didn't Kuala Lumpur help Taib and his maternal uncle Abdul Rahman Ya'kub, 82, flush the dreams of the Dayak community down the toilet bowl for nearly 50 years?

Moreover, the Sarawak seats will help make up Umno's desperate need for the numbers in Parliament. The Malays in Peninsular Malaysia, especially the Internet-savvy younger generation, can no longer be completely trusted like their feudalistic elders.

But as in Sabah, where the party is being propped up by one-time foe-turned-ally Joseph Pairin Kitingan and his PBS (Parti Bersatu Sabah), they will have to manufacture some hype for public consumption.

The line in Sabah was about saving the state from the PBS. This was after then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad did everything possible for 10 long years to ruin it.

What Umno doesn't realise is that Taib's long-awaited replacement is a settled issue. The throne is safe for the Muslim Melanau dynasty of the Rahman-Taib Family.

NONE Sarawak will remain their very own private paradise for several more decades under Norah Abdul Rahman ( right ). If the White Rajahs can pull it off for 150 years, there's no reason why they can't do the same.

After having got rid of their absolute monarchs - including in Malaysia through constitutional amendments - they have pretensions to be political royalties with absolute powers.

Abdul Rahman Ya'kub, the Godfather of the Melanau political mafia in Sarawak, has already decreed within the family that his daughter Norah Abdul Rahman, 51, will be chief minister. But not immediately after Taib Mahmud.

Norah is at present the MP for Tanjung Manis, a seat this first-timer won 'unopposed' after taking over from her cousin Wahab Dolah who moved to the new Igan parliamentary seat. He had ‘won' Tanjung Manis unopposed in 2004.

Temporary seat warmer

What the media doesn't say is that Sarawak is the only place in Malaysia where the practice of buying nomination forms is not only rampant but a crude art.

The moment one picks up the nomination forms at the Election Commission, several political goons would track the intending candidate to his or her house, literally bang down the doors and, uninvited, commence 'negotiations'.

These form-takers are deemed to be people of the lowest kind - those who kacau (disturb) under the pretext of democracy. RM50,000, small change from the public treasury, has been known to change hands for one set of nomination forms.

In the case of Norah, it would be interesting to find out exactly how many forms were taken by intending candidates and why none were lodged on nomination day.

Protecting the dynasty's fortune and its unlimited access to the gravy train is serious business. They call it euphemistically as business. The unkind call it the politics of skim cepat kaya (quick money scheme) or what Taib prefers to call as the "politics of development", and this with a straight face.

Between Taib going and Norah coming, the temporary seat-warmer would in all certainty be PBB deputy president Alfred Jabu Numpang. This recalls the role of Penghulu Tawi Sli who was chief minister for a short spell between Ningkan and Abdul Rahman Ya'kub.

alfred jabu Jabu ( right ) was personally selected by Rahman, just as so many other Dayak leaders, and thrust on the community. Jabu defeated Ningkan in a second election - the former being returned unopposed in the first - and the rest is history.

Rahman thinks that he can be expected to do the ‘right' thing "since Rahman, like Taib, has a big black book with the sins of everybody duly noted therein".

Jabu is needed to help ensure that the 5,000 longhouse chiefs in Dayak country continue their four decades long profitable relationship with the Rahman-Taib dynasty.

Uncrowned paramount chief

Jabu would very much like such a role since he sees himself as the uncrowned Huguan Siou (paramount chief) of the Dayak community. Of course, there are any number of pretenders to Taib's throne.

For starters, there's PBB deputy president Abang Johari Abang Openg, but he's Malay and the Melanau are unanimous that they wouldn't touch him with even a 10-foot pole. Besides, what good could the Rahman-Taib dynasty gain by being at the mercy of Abang Johari?

sulaiman taib Taib's son, Sulaiman ( left ), who was kicked out as executive chairman of RHB Bank by Bank Negara, is a spoilt brat who left the federal cabinet in a huff recently because he was not considered for a full cabinet post.

Onn Mahmud, Taib's brother and sometimes business partner, appears happier running his hotel in the Golden Triangle in Kuala Lumpur.

Mohamad Ali Mahmud, another brother, is Muara Tuang state assemblyperson.

Then there are the other aspirants in the pack - state minister Awang Tengah Ali Hassan, Taib's ex brother-in-law, Adenan Satem who was beaten twice for the PBB deputy presidency by Abang Johari who clinched Dayak support, state speaker Mohamad Afsia Awang Nassar and Effendi Norwawi, 62, all Melanau.

There are those in Sarawak who include Wahab Dolah and Salleh Jafaruddin, another cousin of Taib who is reputed to be an "uncalculated risk taker".

Norah's advantage is that none of her competition can agree among themselves who should succeed Taib.

Those who know her well speak about those early days when she had a penchant for fast cars and trouble.

Should she step into the chief minister's post, the road ahead will probably be a rocky one, and don't discount skeletons in the family closet tumbling out on the way.