1987 Ming Court Affair

The Ming Court Affair was a political coup in Sarawak, Malaysia that began in 1983, developed into a full-blown political crisis during 1987 state election, and ended after the Sarawak Malaysian People's Association (PERMAS) was dissolved in 1991. This political crisis mainly involved in the dispute between Abdul Rahman Ya'kub (former Sarawak chief minister) and his nephew Abdul Taib Mahmud (chief minister of Sarawak) over the control of the state government and Sarawak's natural resources.

Background

The start of the crisis

Abdul Rahman Ya'kub was the third Sarawak chief minister from 1970 to 1981. He left his chief minister post to his nephew Abdul Taib Mahmud in 1981. Abdul Rahman then proceed to assume the ceremonial post of Governor of Sarawak from 1981 to 1985. Abdul Rahman initially advocated his nephew for the chief minister post but the relationship soon turned sour after 2 years. This was because Abdul Rahman wanted Taib to take his advice while running the state government. Rahman's loyalists in Sarawak cabinet also tried to direct the distribution of the state's natural resources and the operation of governmental agencies according to Rahman's wishes. Taib initially continued Rahman's governing policy and inherited the whole Sarawak cabinet intact from his uncle. However, Taib soon grew frustrated with his uncle's control. Taib slowly replaced Rahman's loyalists with his own men. This has resulted in Rahman's displeasure over Taib.^[1]

During the opening ceremony of Tanjung Kidurong port of Bintulu in September 1983, Rahman criticised the federal government for breaking its promise of building a new airport in Bintulu while Taib was trying to deliver his own speech. Taib felt embarrassed by the action of his uncle and left the stage while his uncle was still speaking. Taib later made a public apology on the incident and handed over his resignation letter to Abdul Rahman. Rahman declined the resignation of Taib because Rahman himself also handed over a resignation letter to Yang di-Pertuan Agong in order to vacate his governor's seat. However, Rahman was persuaded by Yang di-Pertuan Agong to stay until his term expires in April 1985.^[1]

1983 PBB general assembly

In September 1983, triennial general assembly of Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) was held. Taib Mahmud, who was the president of the PBB party, tried to secure his own position by not allowing the president and one of the two deputy presidents posts being contested. He allowed one deputy president seat (Bumiputera wing) to be contested but later regretted because Taib worried that Rahman's men would be winning the deputy president seat, thus challenging Taib's authourity in the party. Taib stopped the party elections except for lower tiered Supreme Council seats of the Bumiputera wing. Subsequently, a motion was tabled in the general assembly to authourise Taib to appoint a suitable deputy president for the post. Rahman's faction objected the motion. Since then, Rahman's faction started to attack Taib Mahmud. Matu-Daro PBB branch, formerly headed by Abdul Rahman, tabled a motion to form Sarawak United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) by merging all the bumiputera parties including PBB to order to curb Taib's power in the party. However, federal UMNO leaders such as Musa Hitam said that Sarawak Barisan Nasional (BN) was still strong and thus there was no need of UMNO in Sarawak. However, unknown to Rahman supporters, Taib already made a secret agreement with prime minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohammad that UMNO will not enter Sarawak as long as Mahathir remains as Malaysian prime minister and Taib remains as chief minister of Sarawak. Salleh Jafaruddin (Rahman's nephew) used the General Assembly to mention that Rahman's speech during the opening of Bintulu port was actually not offensive to Taib and Taib should not respond negatively to the matter. However, he also praised Taib for making an apology to Abdul Rahman and reminded Taib he should respect the elders such as Abdul Rahman.^[1]

Personal attacks against Taib Mahmud

In early 1985, Abdul Rahman wrote a personal letter to Taib Mahmud which was later copied to Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohammad. Rahman ended the letter with:

I venture to suggest that if you find that you are unable to change from your present thinking and ways of doing things in Sarawak, you had better make an honourable exit. Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) will decide who should be your successor. I don't intend to fight you. You are too small for me.^[1]

— Abdul Rahman Ya'kub, reported by Michael Leigh in 1991.

However, Mahathir refused to interfere with the matter. Rahman started to question Taib's faith in Islam by accusing Taib of practising Bomohism (a traditional Malay belief in spirits and black magic) in great detail:^[1]

Taib came to see me in 1983 and asked me what I thought would be the best time for an election. I told him it was not for me to say...but my usual practice was to seek guidance from God by praying. I told it was not for me who would face the rakyat (people), but him. Therefore, he must pray the istikharah (special prayer to request certain needs) and the best time to pray is after midnight. He could either do that or go to Mecca for a week. He heeded my advice but my relatives informed me that he took along with him a bomoh and the bomoh was also a kiai because he had the powers of an Indonesian man who had died a few hundred years ago.^[1]

— Abdul Rahman Ya'kub, reported by Sarawak Tribune on 5 April 1985.

In response to Rahman's accusation, Taib argued that nobody has the right to question his faith because only God could judge him.^[1]

Involvement of PBDS and the federal government

Rahman and his supporters also tried to garner the support of non-Muslim bumiputera community especially the Dayaks by feeding them with issues of Taib's policy in marginalising the Dayak community. These issues has led to the support of Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) towards Abdul Rahman. Rahman's supporters also tried to create a crack in relationship between Taib and the federal government by criticising the federal leaders for ignoring Sarawak needs:^[1]

We seldom see federal ministers coming over to visit Sarawak. Even if they do visit, they come for a couple of hours to see the LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) project, then take another flight back to Kuala Lumpur and sit down in the federal capital telling that Sarawak has not much problem.

— Salleh Jafaruddin (Rahman's nephew), reported by Sarawak Tribune on 16 March 1984.

In response to these criticisms, the federal government announced several new projects such as the establishment of RM 400 million Universiti Pertanian Malaysia (UPM) campus in Bintulu. Taib defended the federal leaders by arguing that the prime minister has a strong sense of national integration so the federal government would not marginalise Sarawak. Taib also asked for people's patience in waiting for development projects in Sarawak.^[1]

Taib Mahmud's response

In response to critcisms of Abdul Rahman and his supporters, Taib Mahmud, as the president of PBB, removed Salleh Jafaruddin from his PBB's deputy secretary-general post. A Taib loyalist, Wan Madzihi Wan Madzhar, became the new deputy secretary-general. In November 1985, Taib also suspended Wan Habib Syed Mahmud from PBB's vice-president post, Haji Bala Munir from publicity chief, and Haji A.S. Jaya from assistant-publicity chief. Adenan Satem, a Taib loyalist, became the new publicity chief.^[1]

Taib also started to reshuffle his cabinet in 1985 by creating three new ministries and abolishing two others. Taib placed the newly created Ministry of Resource Planning under him so that he could control the distribution of timber concessions. Taib retained the portfolio firmly under him until his retirement in 2014. Such power of distributing timber concessions was previously held under a Rahman loyalist named Noor Tahir. Noor Tahir was later given a less important portfolio which was Ministry of Environment and Tourism. Hafsah Harun, another Rahman loyalist, was given the portfolio of Minister of Social Development.^[1]

Rahman supporters' response

In April 1986, Salleh Jafaruddin resigned from his state assembly seat of Oya and ceased to become a member of the PBB party because he could not tolerate the leadership of Taib Mahmud anymore. This was because organisers blocked him from attending special assembly of PBB Oya branch although he was the branch chairman. Saadi Olia (Kuala Rajang) and Wan Habib Syed Mahmud (Balingian) soon follow suit and resigned from the party but they kept their own state assembly seats.^[1]

Wan Habib and Saadi Olia later set up a new party named United Sarawak Natives Association (USNA) in 1986. Wan Habib became the president of the party while Salleh became the secretary-general. Salleh Jafaruddin resignation from the state assembly seat of Oya had resulted in a by-election held on 1 and 2 July 1986. Salleh had to contest for the seat as an independent because his party cannot be registered on time. He contested against Wan Madzihi Wan Mahdzar who was the deputy secretary-general of the PBB party. Salleh subsequently lost the seat to Wan Madzihi.^[1]

1986 parliamentary election

During the August 1986 Malaysian general election, all the Sarawak Barisan Nasional component parties were able to win all the seats contested except for SUPP. SUPP lost 2 seats (Serian and Rajang) to independants and 1 seat (Bandar Kuching) to Democratic Action Party (DAP). Sarawak National Party (SNAP) lost 4 seats to PBDS. Both SNAP and PBDS were component parties of Barisan Nasional at that time. There was only a marginal decline for the number of popular votes garnered by Sarawak BN. During the election, Simunjan and Mukah were considered hotly contested seats. Wan Habib (USNA) contested for the Simunjan seat but lost to Bujang Ulis (PBB). Salleh Jafaruddin (USNA) contested for Mukah but lost to Leo Michael Toyad (PBB). Meanwhile, Taib Mahmud won a landslide victory against an independent in Kota Samarahan. Overall, the total number of popular vote garnered by PBB in Muslim bumiputera seats decreased from 77.56% in 1982 election to 68.15% in 1986 election.^[1]

1986 PBB general assembly

PBB general assembly was held in September 1986 soon after the parliamentary election. Taib decided that top posts would not be contested to prevent a further split in the party. However, the deputy president post was still vacant since the last party election. By this time, most of the Rahman supporters were out of the party. Taib decided to open the deputy president post for contest. Sulaiman Daud and Abang Abu Bakar contested for the seat. However, Taib openly endorsed Abu Bakar for the seat. As a result of Taib endorsement, Abang Abu Bakar won the contest, polling 370 votes against the 131 votes by Sulaiman Daud. Besides, 7 vice-president posts and 15 supreme council members were also opened for contests. Abang Johari Tun Openg received the highest number of votes, followed by Wan Wadzihi Wan Madzhar and Bujang Ulis. Adenan Satem was the only candidate who lost the race to vice-president post. Adenan was later appointed to publicity chief while his brother Zainuddin Satem was appointed to the treasurer post. Leo Michael Toyad also secured a seat in the Supreme Council.^[1]

The political crisis

On 9 March 1987, 4 Sarawak ministers (Noor Tahir [PBB], Hafsah Harun [PBB], Daniel Tajem [PBDS], and Edward Jeli [SNAP]) and 3 assistant ministers (Gramong Juna [PBDS], Michael Ben [SNAP], and Hollis Tini [SUPP]) suddenly resigned from the Sarawak cabinet. The 7 leaders with another 20 state assemblymen were flown to Ming Court Hotel (present day Corus Hotels)^[2] at Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur accompanied by Abdul Rahman and the president of PBDS, Leo Moggie. The PBDS party has withdrawn from the Sarawak Barisan National (BN) coalition at state government level but remained with the coalition at the federal government level. They announced that they lost confidence in Taib Mahmud because "he could no longer administer the government properly and has failed to look after the interests of Bumiputera in Sarawak." The 27 state assemblymen named their group Kumpulan Maju (Progressive group). They demanded Taib to resign or otherwise Taib would face a no confidence vote in the Sarawak State Legislative Assembly. The Maju group decided to take this course of action because they fear that in an upcoming Sarawak cabinet reshuffle, Daniel Tajem would be sacked as deputy chief minister. Therefore, they have not enough time to wait and table a formal motion of no confidence against Taib in the state assembly. Tajem had criticised Taib for marginalising Dayaks before this at a PBDS Triennial General Assembly in Sibu. Besides, the rise of Dayak nationalism at that time was also ripe to topple Taib Mahmud. The Maju group also tried to lobby the prime minister of Malaysia Mahathir Mohammad into supporting the group but Mahathir was preoccupied with the hotly contested United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) party election which would later worsened into 1988 Malaysian constitutional crisis. Mahathir would not want to direct support to Rahman's or Taib's group because he would not want to be blamed if another non-Muslim bumiputera chief minister in Sarawak was installed after Stephen Kalong Ningkan and Tawi Sli.^[1]

However, both the Sarawak United Peoples' Party (SUPP) and Sarawak National Party (SNAP) directed their support towards Taib. SUPP also started to persuade the federal government to support Taib in the crisis. This was because SUPP would not want Abdul Rahman to be back in power again because Rahman was responsible for the weakening of SUPP in 1978 by allowing Democratic Action Party (DAP) to enter Sarawak and also the policy of Islamisation adopted by Rahman during his tenure in office as chief minister.^[1]

References

History of East Malaysia Main History1 Empire of Brunei Japanese occupation Borneo campaign British Military Administration Malaysia Agreement Proclamation of Malaysia History of Sabah Brunei Civil War Sultanate of Sulu Austrian colony British North Borneo British North Borneo Company Antanum Mat Salleh Rebellion Madrid Protocol Jesselton Revolt Sandakan camp Sandakan Death Marches Battle of North Borneo Crown Colony of North Borneo Self-government of North Borneo Cobbold Commission 20-point agreement Moro attacks 1985 Lahad Datu ambush 2000 Sipadan kidnappings 2013 Lahad Datu standoff 1986 Sabah riots 1991 Sabah political arrests History of Sarawak Kingdom of Sarawak Batu Lintang camp Crown Colony of Sarawak Anti-cession movement of Sarawak Sarawak Communist Insurgency Self-government of Sarawak Cobbold Commission 18-point agreement 1966 Sarawak constitutional crisis 1987 Ming Court Affair History of Labuan Crown Colony of Labuan Administered under British North Borneo Company Administered under Straits Settlements Battle of North Borneo Battle of Labuan Administered under Crown Colony of North Borneo Part of Sabah Became Federal Territory 1: Covers the three territories.