Uphill climb for PR in Sarawak
PAS national treasurer and central committee member Dr Mohd Hatta Ramli said the party is set to add several more seats to the single one in which it contested and lost during the last election, where it garnered over 40% of votes.
by Maria J. Dass and Alyaa Alhadjri, The Sun
Pakatan Rakyat (PR) parties are under no illusion that they can replicate their 2008 performance in the coming Sarawak election.
Different issues, different landscape and a lack of resources are going to be the coalition’s Achilles heel.
DAP deputy chairman Dr Tan Seng Giaw however feels his party has a slight edge. After all, it has had a footing in the state since the early 1970s.
In the coming state election the party is expected to concentrate on the predominantly Chinese urban areas while PAS and PKR will contest in more remote constituencies.
Despite its familiarity, DAP’s election machinery is treading carefully as it considers the Sarawak landscape “a different world”.
“Issues that effect West Malaysians and urbanites may not work there as the concerns are more on local issues,” said Tan.
“Going there and talking about the Port Klang Free Zone is not going to work because this issue does not affect them directly.
“Maybe in the more urbanised Sibu – as we saw from the by-election last year,” he said when contacted.
Tan said PR has a better chance with the Chinese and Dayaks in the suburbs whom he claims are unhappy with lack of opportunities and unfair wealth distribution.
“Some issues like the Al-Kitab (Malay language Bible) may strike a cord with them as there are more Christians there, and they have been using the terminology ‘Allah’ for decades,” he said.
The fight in rural areas will however be an uphill challenge, Tan admitted, saying the lack of accessibility, the strong influence of village headmen and biased media reporting are among hurdles that PR is up against.
“We are also faced with possible election irregularities,” he said, explaining that inaccessibility to the interiors means it cannot check on irregularities with regard to the transportation of ballot boxes.
Meanwhile, PKR vice-president Tian Chua said the party looks set to contest in the “main bulk” of rural constituencies but cited limited resources as its main setback.
“But since our system is never fair anyway, it is a situation that we have learned to live with,” he said, alluding to the BN machinery.
On issues that are expected to take centre stage during campaign, Chua said that a lot still revolves around bread and butter concerns of the voters, many of whom still live in poverty.
“Voters are currently haunted by politicians who do not have the vision to bring good governance, which in turn led the state to continue being poverty,” he said when contacted.
Despite mounting attention on the issue of Malay language Bibles, Chua said the Opposition will not be exploiting the matter.
PAS national treasurer and central committee member Dr Mohd Hatta Ramli said the party is set to add several more seats to the single one in which it contested and lost during the last election, where it garnered over 40% of votes.
“The party machinery is ready to face the polls. All that is left now is to finalise the seats that we will be contesting,” he said.
He added, PAS has set its eyes on both rural and urban seats, with majority Muslim voters. PAS has yet to make a toehold in Sarawak while DAP has six seats and PKR one.
