KUCHING, Oct 30 — Both have created history in their own right but only one will return to parliament when the votes are cast on Nov 19 this year.
Lawas incumbent Datuk Henry Sum Agong will be gunning for his sixth term if he is again given the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) ticket in the coming polls.
He was Bukit Mas MP for two terms, from 1999 to 2008, before the parliamentary seat was redelineated into Limbang and Lawas constituencies.
Before parliament was dissolved on Oct 10, he was the Deputy Minister of Transport since March 2020 and before that, Deputy Minister of Rural Development II when the country was led by Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
He is the first Lun Bawang to be a member of the federal cabinet when he was appointed Deputy Minister of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism from June 2016 to May 2018 during the administration of Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Razak.
Humble and approachable, with his soft-spoken wife Datin Tunung Palong as his pillar of strength, Henry has quietly served his constituents irrespective of race or creed and continues to enjoy popular support, particularly in the crucial Bukit Sari state constituency.
His contributions to Lawas included the many federal rural development projects, the new Lawas airport project, ports and others.
Standing in his way for re-election is another Lun Bawang political heavyweight Baru Bian.
In the state polls last year, he was returned for a third term as Ba Kelalan assemblyman with an even bigger majority than previously.
Known for his native customary land rights activism in and outside the court, Baru was the first Lun Bawang to be appointed federal minister in 2018 while he was Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Sarawak chairman.
However, his Putrajaya stint as Minister of Works was cut short when the Pakatan Harapan government collapsed after barely 22 months following the Sheraton Move, a defining political moment in Malaysia’s history which led to three prime ministers taking office until parliament was dissolved on Oct 10 this year.
Down but not out, this resilient Lun Bawang boy from Long Semadoh had bounced back to secure Ba kelalan on the Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) ticket and is now the party’s secretary-general.
Baru has a colourful history of being in different political parties but the ‘political frog’ tag has not deterred him in the last election, and is unlikely to stick either in the coming election campaign.
Before heading the state PKR, he was once also a vice president of Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak.
Baru started his political career by challenging current deputy premier Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan in 1991 in Lawas.
In 2004, he stood as an independent candidate in the Ba Kelalan by-election following the death of the incumbent Datuk Dr Judson Sakai in July that year.
He was defeated by BN’s Datuk Nelson Balang Rining that election and again in the following state election in 2006 where he narrowly lost by 475 votes while contesting as a candidate of the now defunct Sarawak National Party (SNAP).
After joining PKR in April 2008 and leading it a year later, Baru’s political fortune took a turn for the better when he finally won Ba Kelalan in 2011 by a slim margin of 473 votes against BN’s Willie Liau, who is his nephew.
He faced his nephew again in 2016, and this time won by a bigger margin of 538 votes.
And in the state polls last year, he increased his winning margin to 680 votes in a five-cornered fight by defeating Sam Laya (GPS), Peter Asut (PBK), Martin Labo (PKR) and Agnes Padan (Independent).
However, Baru’s past record in general elections in Lawas and Limbang has been anything but stellar.
In 2013, he was soundly defeated by BN’s new face Hasbi Habibollah, an engineer. Baru garnered only 4,698 votes against Hasbi’s 12,999 votes.
However, lady luck smiled on him in the 2018 general election, where a PRS leadership crisis led him to contest in the Iban-majority seat of Selangau in central Sarawak and he defeated BN’s Rita Sarimah.
Elements of sabotage, disputes and revenge in the constituency handed him this famous victory in the Iban-majority seat as Baru is an Orang Ulu from the Lun Bawang heartland of Ba Kelalan.
With the victory, Baru, who was Sarawak PKR chairman at the time, was appointed as Works Minister by the 7th Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
However, the political scenario in Selangau has changed and Baru has decided to head home to his familiar political battleground in Lawas this time round where he will contest on the PSB ticket.
In last general election, Henry won Sarawak’s northernmost parliamentary seat with a majority of 6,000 votes in a three-cornered fight.
With automatic registration in effect since January, the number of voters has increased drastically to 33,527 from 21,297 in 2018, and the biggest question mark is whether the new voters will come out to vote and if so, who will they choose as their MP?
Henry is 76 years old while Baru is 64.
The odds favour Henry, who has the advantage of not only being the incumbent and having the GPS election machinery and resources. Baru, however, has proven time and again that he is no pushover.
With the two Lun Bawang political giants locking horns, the race for Ba Kelalan will surely be one to watch. — Borneo Post
