416: Reflections & Observations From The 2011 Sarawak Elections – Part 1
By Ong Kian Ming, Loyarburok
IN THE RECENTLY CONCLUDED SARAWAK STATE ELECTIONS, I had a unique opportunity to be involved in part of the election campaign rather than reading and observing the process from the outside. I was based in Sibu for two weeks, as part of the Democratic Action Party’s campaign there. During the campaign, I tweeted that it was an ‘exhilarating, exasperating and exhausting affair’. I learnt things about the electoral process which I would never have otherwise learnt as an outsider.
The following article is a summary of my observations and reflections on various salient aspects of the electoral process. I strongly encourage anyone reading this to seriously consider getting yourself involved in an election campaign, as a party volunteer for any of the Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat parties, or ‘merely’ as a polling or counting agent. There is nothing like the experience of getting your hands dirty, so to speak, to learn first-hand about the electoral process.
The first salient point about the electoral process is actually a positive note. Well, sort of. One of the most effective ways in which an opposition party gets its message across to voters during an election campaign is through ceramahs or public speeches. While there were some online reports documenting the restrictions faced by Anwar Ibrahim when he was giving ceramahs in some of the more rural areas before the campaign; in the major cities, thousands thronged to listen to opposition leaders from Sarawak and from Peninsular Malaysia speak on various topics, including Taib Mahmud’s long tenure as Chief Minister in the state and the wealth he and his family have amassed over the years; the hollow nature of Prime Minister Najib’s 1Malaysia; the ineffectiveness of SUPP leaders in the state government and the viciousness of the personal attacks against Anwar and also Pakatan Rakyat’s own governance record in Penang, Selangor and Perak.
The police permits, on the whole, were relatively easy to come by and the Election Commission teams that were supposedly monitoring some of the ‘hot’ seats were mostly absent. Those who came to listen also generously donated to the opposition campaign, bought books by various Pakatan leaders and of course, the ubiquitous Ubah, both small (RM10) and big (RM60).
By contrast, the ceramahs organized by the BN parties were sparsely attended, many failing even to attract more than a hundred people (not including ’spies’ from the opposition and party volunteers). Even the presence of Chinese pop stars such as Guang Liang and Zhang Dong Liang failed to attract crowds that could rival those attending the opposition ceramahs.
