The Minister for Communications and Multimedia, Datuk Salleh Said Keruak may be wide off the mark to think that the Sarawak polls show that Barisan Nasional can win in the 14th General Election.

At least the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak was more realistic when after Adenan Satem’s swearing-in as Sarawak Chief Minister, he hailed Barisan Nasional’s victory as an indication of “Sarawakians’ confidence in Adenan’s leadership” – which is a very different matter from Sarawakians’ confidence in Najib’s leadership despite Najib’s hijacking of the Sarawak state general election from Adenan by being the Santa Claus of the BN election campaign of money politics.

Salleh should know that the impending parliamentary by-elections in Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar will be more reliable barometers of Najib’s fate in the 14GE than the just concluded 11th Sarawak state general electilns.

This is one of the several myths which have been born in the past 36 hours after the results of the 11th Sarawak state general election on Saturday night. Read the rest of this entry »

DAP must not be afraid to lose in elections as we must learn from the crushing defeat in the Sarawak state elections yesterday so that we can become stronger to fight for justice, freedom and human empowerment for all Sarawakians and Malaysians another day.

The test of a political movement dedicated to the higher ideals of justice, freedom and human empowerment is the ability not to be crushed by a “crushing defeat”, but the ability to rise from a “crushing defeat” to be stronger and more committed to our cause to fight another day.

We can bemoan that if the voter turnout had been more than 70 percent and close to 76.3 per cent as in the 2013 Paliamentary elections and not just 68.1% yesterday, DAP Sarawak could have kept the 12 state assembly seats won five years ago.

In fact , on the same day that the Sarawak voters went to polls yesterday, a political analyst Bridget Welsh had predicted the Sarawak state general election outcome in her article, “A ‘fixed’ result – Sarawak’s electoral distortions” in Malaysiakini, explaining that the non-independent Election Commission (EC) had staked the system in the Barisan Nasional’s favour in how it had delineated and recently redrawn the state’s electoral boundaries – resulting in the DAP Sarawak losing five of the 12 state seats and the greatest victim of such “BN-created electoral constituencies in the state” is Alan Ling Sie Keong, DAP Sarawak State Secretary in a redelineated Piasau assembly seat.

It is because of such gerrymandering that Adenan could predict during the election campaign that the BN would win at least 70 of the 82 seats, which turns out finally to be 72. Read the rest of this entry »

I call on the Sarawak voters to think “2021” in next five years for Sarawakians to change political course in the next state general elections and to vote in a new State Government which gives priority to the interests of the people and not just to cronies.

The 11th Sarawak State general election is one of the most challenging elections ever experienced by the Sarawak DAP since its formation 38 years ago in 1978.

In a way, its a “Do or Die” battle for the DAP.

The Sarawak Chief Minister, Tan Sri Adenan Satem, and the Sarawak Barisan Nasional election juggernaut are doing their utmost to destroy or reduce the DAP to a “mosquito” party with only half a dozen seats in the State Assembly with their four-pronged strategy of Adnan effect, Najib effect, the politics of money and the politics of fear/intimidation.

Adenan would want to see the worst-case scenario for DAP after the May 7 Sarawak state general elections, reduced to at most half-a-dozen seats in the Sarawak State Assembly.

DAP Sarawak is not cowed and is not prepared to play according to the Sarawak Barisan Nasiona’s rules of the game. Read the rest of this entry »

I call on the voters of Sarawak to solidly vote for the 31 DAP candidates to deliver two powerful “Yes” and one even more powerful “No” in the 11th Sarawak state general election on Saturday on May 7.

The May 7 Polling Day will decide the success or failure of the two-pronged DAP objective in the 11th Sarawak state general election to defend the 12 State Assembly seats won five years ago and to achieve a breakthrough in Dayak-dominated constituencies and to send a clear, categorical and unmistakable message that a new political era has arrived in Sarawak where rural areas like Samalaju, Kemena, Murum, Mulu, Tasik Biru, Mambong, Bukit Semuja, Kedup, Simanggang, Pakan, Bukit Goram, Pelagus, Ngemah have joined their brothers and sisters in the urban areas in Kuching, Sibu, Sarikei, Bintangor, Bintulu and Miri to demand for political change and meaningful development.

The message of the two powerful “Yes” and the even more powerful “No” which the voters of Sarawak must send out to the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, the caretaker Sarawak Chief Minister, Tan Sri Adenan Satem, Malaysia and the world are:

The first loud and clear “Yes” is to Adenan as the next Chief Minister of Sarawak for the next five years. Adenan himself said many a time that he is 72 years old and wanted only another five years as Sarawak Chief Minister as he wants to retire and play with his grand children. The first “Yes” includes a “Yes” to Sarawak Barisan Nasional forming the Sarawak state government for the next five years as the issue of who is going to be the Sarawak Chief Minister for the next five years was as good as decided and resolved on Nomination Day on April 25, 2016.

The second loud and powerful “Yes” is to have a strong, effective and principled Opposition in the Sarawak State Assembly to ensure that Adenan deliver his promises to give top priority to the rights and interests of Sarawakians, and even more important, to check him from any abuses and excesses of power, bearing in mind Lord Acton’s maxim: “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely”!

The ideal result on May 7 is to deny Adenan two-thirds State Assembly majority, which will require a collective Opposition strength of 28 out of the total of 82 State Assembly seats.

This appears very difficult to achieve, and I will personally be delighted if DAP can win over 20 State Assembly seats on May 7 – which will also start the Sarawak DAP on the new journey to aim to form the Sarawak State Government with like-minded Sarawakians in the next 12th Sarawak State Government in 2021. Read the rest of this entry »

Dayak DAP State Assemblymen will demand a full explanation by Sarawak Barisan National Government the reasons for 53 years of development backwardness and failures in Sarawak and to give a final warning that DAP Sarawak State Government will take over in 2021 unless there is meaningful remedy of these basic failures.

This will undoubtedly be the main thrust of the agenda of Dayak DAP State Assemblymen elected on Saturday on May 7 when they take their place in the Sarawak State Assembly.

I have visited more than a dozen Dayak constituencies in the past two weeks – including Mulu, Marudi, Tasik Biru, Mambong, Bukit Semuja, Kedup, Simanggang, Krian, Pakan, Bukit Goram, Katibas and Ngemah, and will visit Samalaju, Kemena and Murum.

I find the tour of the Dayak constituencies most enriching and eye-opening experience, learning not only about Dayak hospitality, the rich cultures and even the long history of the Dayaks – over a hundred years of the Kelabit high-achievers in Bario and the some two centuries of the Bidayuh in Bau surroundings – but I am also shocked by the backwardness of many Dayak communities, especially in terms of basic infrastructures and basic human needs which are not being met.

I was in Kapit and Song the last 24 hours and it is most shocking that although the multibillion-ringgit Bakun Dam is in the Kapit Division, the majority of the long-houses in the three districts in the area – Song, Kapit and Pelagus – do not enjoy electricity let alone piped water.

A DAP Sarawak State Government will ensure that the longhouses in the Kapit Division of Song, Kapit and Pelagus districts will enjoy electricity in view of the vicinity of the multibillion ringgit Bakun Dam project. Why can’t the Barisan Nasional government do the same thing? Read the rest of this entry »

Two issues in the 11th Sarawak state general election on May 7 are already decided – that Tan Sri Adenan Satem will be the Sarawak Chief Minister for the next five years and that the Sarawak Barisan Nasional will form the next Sarawak State Government.

The real issue about the Sarawak State Assembly to be decided on Sarawak Polling Day is whether there is going to be a strong, effective and principled Opposition grouping in the Sarawak State Assembly to ensure three things: (i) that Adenan keeps his election promises to serve the people; (ii) Adenan does not abuse his powers as Chief Minister; and (3) to prepare for a new non-Sarawak BN government in five years’ time in the next Sarawak state general election in 2021.

With the situation very clear that Adenan will be the Sarawak Chief Minister for the next five years with Sarawak Barisan Nasional as the State Government, the most ideal result of the May 7 Polling is for the denial of Adenan’s two-thirds majority in the State Assembly which is the best safeguard to protect the rights and interests of Sarawakians.

However, I do not think this is likely to be achieved on Polling Day on Saturday as I do not see the signs that the Opposition collectively will be able to win 28 State Assembly seats, the “magic figure” to deny Adenan two-thirds majority in the 82-seat Sarawak State Assembly.

I hope more than 20 Opposition State Assembly representatives could be elected on May 7, which would be a resounding setback for the many high-handed actions taken by the Sarawak Barisan Nasional in the election campaign, aimed at reducing the DAP to a “mosquito” presence of about half-a-dozen seats in the State Assembly. Read the rest of this entry »

It is time for the Katibas voters to have a young, dedicated and idealistic State Assemblyman instead of a seven-term incumbent, Datuk Ambrose Blikau, who became Assemblyman even before the DAP candidate Paren Nyawi was born and could not build the road from Song to Kapit and Kanowit after more than three decades as government representative for the area.

Before the formation of Malaysia, numerous fact-finding missions from Sarawak visited Peninsular Malaysia and were promised that if Sarawak, together with Sabah and Singapore, agreed to form Malaysia, the people of Sarawak particularly in the rural areas could expect a standard of development and living comparable to those in the rural areas in the peninsula.

We now have the third generation of Sarawakians, after 53 years of the formation of Malaysia, but the promises made in the early sixties have still to be fulfilled or the road from Song to Kapit and from Song to Kanowit would have been completed one generation or two ago. Read the rest of this entry »