Could Sarawak Be DAP’s Next Conquest?
A Kadir Jasin
GIVEN Sarawak’s ethnic and religious characteristics, it looks like the DAP’s best bet after Penang. That may not happen during this Saturday’s state polls, but some time in the future.
When the party’s supreme leader, Lim Kit Siang, declared in the Chinese-dominated Miri on April 10, that “there is something special in the air in Miri – in fact, even for Sarawak – next Saturday” the gut instinct is to accuse him of engaging in political rhetoric.
We don’t have to wait long to see the real worth of Lim’s exuberance. This Saturday’s polling in the state election will determine if indeed the DAP has a brighter future in Sarawak.
His Miri declaration is reminiscence of the Lim’s Tanjung One project in the mid-1980s that saw him unseating Dr Koh Tsu Koon from the Tanjung parliamentary seat and winning the Kampung Kolam state seat. His audacity and brinkmanship helped the DAP to win nine other state seats.
In the 1990 Tanjung Two project, Lim dethroned the late Gerakan founder and Penang Chief Minister, Dr Lim Chong Eu, from the Padang Kota (state) seat and retained the Tanjung parliamentary seat. The party was just three seats short of winning the state.
Although Tanjung Three project in 1995 and the subsequent general elections did not bear the desired results, the party’ perseverance paid off in 2008.
Could Sarawak offer a similar challenge and possibility to the DAP? To begin with, not unlike Penang, the political wind has been blowing hot and cold for the DAP in the state.
In the 2006 state polls, the DAP garnered 18.9 per cent of the votes that translated into six seats, making it the most successful opponent of the state Barisan Nasional.
The most compelling characteristic of Sarawak that suggests it could be the next conquest for the DAP is its ethnicity.
Although the natives Dayaks (the Ibans and Bidayuh) make up the bulk of the state’s population, the Chinese form the single largest cohesive group followed by the Malays and Melanaus. It is estimated that the Dayaks and other native people make up 44 per cent of the population, Chinese 26 per cent and the Malay and Melanau the remaining 30 per cent.
Lim had declared that Miri was finally waking up to the prospects of political change and might very well be in the frontline of the party’s battle to wrest Sarawak from the state BN. He said while the war was far from won, signs were looking up.
Still the DAP, with its overwhelmingly Chinese character, cannot expect a major win in the ethnically divided state unless it works with the local parties. Depending solely on its federal allies — the PKR and Pas – is unlikely to improve its fortune.
