Everybody knows it and Taib knows it very well: he (Taib) has all the money while Mawan has none. Mawan cannot survive without Taib’s money. SPDP cannot survive without being in BN and enjoy Taib’s money. Those who attended SPDP’s meeting at Bintulu, many among them, did so because they came with the hope of getting some money, and also getting recognition by BN so that other goodies from BN will (hopefully) come their way after that, one day. Just look at SNAP when it was in BN, many peoples wanted to associate with it. After it was deregistered, and because of Mawan’s complicity with Taib, everybody shy away from SNAP. It has become a pariah to most people.
With that in the background lets look at the Mas Gading scenario. Taib needed the 4 ADUN in the Gang of Five. Surely numerically 4 ADUN is better than Mawan’s 2 ADUN!. So because Nansen of the 4 ADUN in the gang of Five wanted Tiki Laffe to contest in Mas Gading, and the latter is campaigning like he never did before now in the area probably with enough finance from Taib through Nansen, so Tiki Laffe will be the BN candidate for Mas Gading. Otherwise Taib will not give money to Mawan. Without Taib’s money then Mawan will have to rely heavily on Tiong. And if that happens then Tiong will take over from Mawan well before the next general election to state assembly, and Mawan will go like the Endawie formula of the ’80s. The threat of Taib not financing Mas Gading’s candidate will send shudder to the spine of Mawan and even his so-called winnable listed candidate, with the exception perhaps of Henry Jinep who has good income from Hidmat Negara. But that too will disappear if he dares go against Taib, and he knows it he won’t.
So the frustration expressed by members of SPDP against what they perceived as Taib’s interference in SPDP’s internal affairs, those frustrations are borne out of their sheer ignorance of how SPDP/BN works. Taib is having his hand in every pie in Sarawak. Nothing move without his consent, especially in BN. You can bet your bottom dollar, of course the Gang of Five was the result of the works of inner circle in PBB, with Taib’s blessing. Their ultimate goal is you know as much as I do, perhaps.