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| Chinese in Bau are for BN-SPDP Anthony Nogeh Gumbek. |
KUCHING: Political
observers said the opposition’s hope of winning the three Bidayuh majority
seats of Serian, Mambong and Mas Gading looks to be nothing more than a dream which
they will never realise.
They said this
was so because the Bidayuh voters have already set their mind not to support
the party as it is their understanding that DAP is a Chinese based party that will
only fight for the Chinese rights while PKR is a Semenanjung based that will
never look after the natives
in Sarawak .
The Bidayuh already
have enough of SUPP, the Sarawak Chinese based party which is now being
rejected by the Chinese themselves but still being accepted in two state
constituencies which are Bidayuh-majority area of Opar and Bengoh and Serian
Parliamentary seats.
“The reason why
they voted SUPP was because the voters have no choice – they still prefer BN
and only through SUPP their wish to be in BN are granted or maybe because of
the personalities – Datuk Richard Riot (Serian), Dr Jerip Susil (Bengoh) and
Ranum Mina (Opar).
“If not the
voters would prefer to be represented by other three BN component parties,
either PBB, SPDP or PRS,” they said.
DAP has been
promoting Bandar Kuching MP’s special assistant and former reporter Mordi Bimol
as the likely candidate for Mas Gading while in Serian will be the branch
chairman Edward Andrew Luwak and PKR Willie Mongin in Mambong.
A political
observer, who is a senior lecturer and head of publication in Universiti
Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) Dr Ahli Sarok said it was impossible for any opposition
candidate to win the Bidayuh-majority seat.
He said DAP
have their branch in the constituency but not at the village level like what
the BN component parties have.
“Without
their branches at village level how can they mobilise their machineries to win support
from the voters at the grass root level?,” asked Dr Ahli who does political
science and public sector management research at Unimas.
He said the
Bidayuh voters will not vote for candidates who are young, inexperienced and have
no credibility.
Dr Ahi
however said based on the trends in the previous parliamentary and state
general election the opposition candidates will still receive quite good number
of sympathy votes in the Bidayuh-majority areas.
He said the trend
in past Parliamentary elections showed that candidates from the opposition parties
usually garnered more than 7,000 votes.
According to
Dr Ahi, PKR would have stronger support in the Bidayuh-majority area compare to
DAP and PAS.
He was quick
to caution the Bidayuh on whether the Pakatan Rakyat government will look into
the welfare and the interest of the Bidayuh as compare to the BN government.
“Will the
Bidayuh YBs from DAP and PKR be given positions in the federal government?” he
asked again.
He said
there is no way Willie Mongin (PKR) and Mordi (DAP) will be given any post in
the federal cabinet because both are without position in the party in the
federal level.
In contrast
he said Datuk Richard Riot is the deputy president of SUPP and Datuk Dr James
Dawos is the Supreme Council member of PBB and both are deputy ministers in the
federal cabinet.
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| STAR office and BN Tasik Biru Service centre is side by side in Bau town. Why? |
"Pakatan
Rakyat has no interest in Bidayuh and even if they form the next government
they will not fight for the Bidayuh interests,” he added.
Dr Ahi said
DAP intention to filed one or two Bidayuh in the general election was just to
show that they are a multi-racial party.
On the Bidayuh
worries that if DAP in the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) govern the state and country
they would lose their rights, especially their Native Customary Rights (NCR) lands
which are their only asset, Dr Ahi said that is yet to be seen.
The Bidayuh
most fear is when the Pakatan Rakyat government especially DAP fight for the
amendment to the Land Code to allow the non-Bumiputera to purchase and own NCR
land.
Should this
happen money will splash around and most of the Bidayuh will lose their NCR
land.
“That may
happen if Pakatan Rakyat takes over the state government but then they have to
amend the state land code and the state election is still four more years to
come,” said Dr Ahi.
DAP has
announced its intention to field its candidates in Mas Gading and Serian but
political observers are of the opinion that PKR would be more acceptable in
these two constituencies.
In Mas
Gading, the ‘hottest’ there are expected to be stiff competition not only among
BN potential candidates but also among the opposition parties.
Within BN,
the potential candidates from Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) and
BN Club have been going around to promote themselves.
As for BN,
SPDP has been promoting Salcra deputy general manager Anthony Nogeh Gumbek but
the illegal BN Club has also been organising events to promote Dr Tiki in the
hope he would be re-nominated as direct BN candidate.
Pakatan
Rakyat allies DAP and PKR are also vying among themselves for the right to
represent the opposition pact to contest in the constituency.
Recently
State Reform Party (STAR) announced it was determined to put up a candidate and
even urged Pakatan to stay out from Mas Gading.
STAR
vice-president Patrick Anek Uren claimed STAR was the strongest in Mas Gading
and would focus all its resources there.
He said
STAR, which is the political vehicle of United Borneo Front (UBF), had
informally made known its intentions to Pakatan leaders and hoped that the
opposition alliance would respect its wishes to pave the way for the party to
have straight fight against BN.
Anek, a
former Mas Gading MP from 1974 to 1986 and Tasik Biru assemblyman from 1974 to
1983 under SNAP, said if DAP and PKR refused to give way, then the two
constituencies would see multi-cornered fights.
DAP has been
promoting Bandar Kuching MP’s special assistant and former reporter Mordi Bimol
as the likely candidate for Mas Gading.
PKR, on the
other hand, roused speculation that it was also interested in the seat after
its de-facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim visited two villages there last
month.
Kampung
Rukam village chief Charles Chonggat said the people in Biawak and Lundu will
not vote for the opposition party candidates especially DAP candidate.
“The people in
these two areas still strongly believe in the BN government,” he said.
He said DAP
candidate have no chance to win there as he have no support from the people in
the area.
“Even other
opposition party candidates and Independent candidates would also not win in
Mas Gading,” he added.
In Serian DAP
is propsing to field the branch chairman Edward Andrew Luwak but the latter had
said Serian branch will adhere to the decision of Pakatan Rakyat’s top
leadership on the candidate for the seat.
Andrew said
the branch has been consistent in this stand to leave it to the top leaders in
Pakatan to pick the candidate.
“We believe
they are prudent and able to pick a winnable candidate whether from DAP or PKR
to take on Barisan Nasional in seats including Serian. We are not fighting a
mosquito party here, we are fighting a giant,” he said.
It has been
reported that a group from PKR is lobbying for the party’s candidates to be
nominated in all three Bidayuh-majority seats of Mas Gading, Mambong and
Serian.
Except for Mambong,
PKR’s interest in Mas Gading and Serian was seen by some quarters as a last
minute ditch considering DAP has been doing more groundwork in those seats
since 2011.
Andrew said
DAP Serian branch has been moving on the ground since 2011 after the branch was
re-activated that year following a dormant period.
He said the
branch has organised activities to promote the party to the people in Serian,
telling voters DAP is not Chinese-based party as portrayed by its detractors.
“Through our
programmes, we were able to tell the people in rural areas that DAP is not a
party that fights only for the interests of the Chinese. They are now more
aware that DAP’s struggle is for all Malaysians including Dayaks and Malays in
Serian,” he said.
Serian, a
Bidayuh majority seat comprising Tebedu and Kedup state seats, was represented
by BN component SUPP deputy president Datuk Richard Riot for five terms.
If DAP gets
picked for the seat, it will be the first time it has contested in Serian.
DAP and PKR
have yet to resolve overlapping claims in several of the 31 parliamentary seats
in the state.
Some 60% of
Sarawak PKR’s candidates in the coming 13th general election are likely to be
professionals but ‘political novices’.
Taking the
que from Sarawak DAP, opposition PKR is set to field greenhorns in the 13th
general election which will see contest in 31 parliamentary seats in the state.
Both state
DAP and PKR are reportedly vying for 12 seats each. The more confident of the
two is DAP having scored unprecedented win in last April’s state election.
DAP won 12
of the 15 seats it contested literally wiping off Sarawak political landscape
of BN’s SUPP.
PKR on its
part contested in 49 seats but only managed to win three seats in Ba’ Kelalan,
Krian and Batu Lintang.
Going into
the 13th GE, DAP has already revealed that about 50% of the candidates would be
in their 20s and are graduates.
PKR on its
part has declared that at least 60% of its potential YBs would be below
40-years old.
According to
PKR Election Committee Secretariat’s state representative Baharuddin Mokhsen
although the candidates were “political novices” they were professionals and
“highly intellectual.”
“It won’t be
easy to intimidate them. Most
importantly, their youthful presence would appeal to the young voters,” he
reportedly said.
Baharuddin
said seat negotiations between component parties of Pakatan Rakyat were moving
along well “except for certain seats.”
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