By Wong Teck Chi | Malaysiakini

On top of a huge swing of nearly 40 percent of Chinese voters to Pakatan Rakyat in Miri, a smaller proportion of urban or suburban bumiputera voters has turned to the opposition coalition, which resulted in SUPP losing almost all three state seats in Miri three days ago.

However, the magnitude of the swing is hard to estimate, given that there is no single area in Miri with a super majority of bumiputera voters.

The best example which showed there is some swing to Pakatan among the bumiputera community is Senadin, which is located on the outskirts of Miri.

Despite that that the seat has a mix of 49.98% Chinese, 28.97% Malay or Melanau and 15.88 % Iban, PKR candidate Michael Teo was still able to slash the majority of SUPP incumbent Lee Kim Sin from 4,799 votes in the 2006 state election to just 58 votes.

If not for the controversial postal votes that numbered around 1,000, SUPP would definitely have lost Senadin, and the party would have been totally wiped out from Sarawak’s second largest city.

In a further analysis into the results at Senadin’s polling districts, Malaysiakini has also found that PKR almost won at Kuala Baram despite the constituency having only 37.19% of Chinese, who are considered largely pro-opposition.

There are 31.35% Malay/Melanau voters and 24.46% Iban in Kuala Baram, but PKR still managed to get 47.25% of votes, showing that the multiracial party also got significant support from the bumiputera community in this election.

Beside Senadin, two other state seats – Piasau and Pujut under the Miri parliamentary seat – also showed a similar trend and the Iban swing was more obvious.

Within Piasau’s Lutong polling district, which has the highest number of Iban voters (40.63%), DAP’s popularity has increased tremendously to 56.73%, a jump of 23.06% from 33.67% in the last state election.

Surge in DAP’s popularity

In two other Malay/Melanau majority polling districts – Permaisuri (50.1% Malay/Melanau) and Bintang (44.85% Malay/Melanau), DAP’s popularity also increased by 17.37% and 20.35% respectively to 42.84% and 44.39%, despite losing to SUPP in both polling districts.

Another clear example of the swing is from Lambir, a mixed-bumiputera state seat under the Sibuti parliamentary seat, which is close to Miri. Miri International Airport is located in the constituency.

The seat has a majority of bumiputera voters, with 39.3% Malay/Melanau and 29.7% Iban, but PKR still successfully increased their votes from 1,497 in the last election to 3,104 this year, and the majority was also reduced from 2,834 to 1,521, despite that another opposition party, Snap, has siphoned off 693 votes.

In terms of percentage, the popularity of PBB, which contested under the BN logo, has reduced from 74.31% to 54.98%, a sharp drop of nearly 20%.

The swing among urban or suburban bumiputras is believed to be largely because they faced the same inflationary pressure faced by Chinese urban voters.

Indeed, the urban bumiputera community faces even more perils because most of them belong to the low-income group, living mostly in squatters’ residences beside the beach or in low-cost housing areas in the suburbs.

In addition, thousands of bumiputeras, especially Ibans, in squatter areas such as Canada Hill, Pujut Corner and Kampung Wireless were also relocated to give way to development projects, causing dissatisfaction with the state government.

In contrast to those in rural areas, this group of urban bumiputera voters have more access to information and thus more open to a political alternative.

For instance, one of the ceramah held by PKR on the outskirts of Miri before polling day had attracted around 500 bumiputera voters to listen to leaders like PKR deputy president Azmin Ali (centre in picture).

When one of the leaders asked, “Who is the biggest vacuum cleaner in the state?”, the crowd simultaneously shouted, “Taib”, displaying their dissatisfaction against Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud and his government following a series of corruption allegations.

Protest vote against Taib

Meanwhile, the Chinese community in Miri has seen a bigger swing to the opposition, which is as large as 38.22% in some areas, leading to the fall of SUPP president George Chan to DAP novice Ling Sie Kiong in Piasau.

According to the election results, DAP won at least 66% of the Chinese votes in Miri, which is largely a protest vote against Taib and the BN state government.

This is evident in DAP’s victory in two Piasau polling districts with 90 percent Chinese voters – Bazaar and Merbau. During the last election, DAP only gained 28.7% and 29% in these two areas, but their popularity has jumped to 66.59% and 67.22%.

In Pujut, there is also a polling station with 90 percent Chinese voters – Krokop – and DAP’s popularity there has increased sharply from 46.2% to 72.02%.

This has sounded the alarm bells for SUPP, who claim to represent the Sarawak Chinese community within the BN coalition, as the party could only bag less than one-third of the Chinese votes.

Another peril the party faces is that they are getting less support in those polling streams with younger voters.

Before the state election, Miri was seen as the last fortress of SUPP after the fall of Kuching in the last state election and Sibu in last year’s parliamentary by-election to the opposition.

However, this was not surprising since opposition ceramahs in Miri after nomination day have constantly attracted crowds of thousands, evidence of the strong anti-Taib and anti-SUPP sentiment.

Although the Chinese-based SUPP had called on the Chinese community to defend George Chan as deputy chief minister and warned voters about the loss of Chinese representation in government during the last stages of the campaign, this fail to deter voter to back the opposition.