Time to Mobilize the 45%!
By Sarawak Report
PKR Sarawak Leader, Baru Bian, enters the State Parliament for the first time today with a new rallying cry. He has told Sarawak Report in an exclusive interview that it is time to mobilize grass roots support and to form an army of volunteers to build on the opposition’s progress at the State Election.
In a clear appeal to the frustrated 45% of the electorate who voted for the opposition, but were rewarded with just a relative handful of seats, he said Sarawak must develop a new ‘culture of volunteerism’ to counter the corruption of money politics and passive voters. He told Sarawak Report:
“Mobilization of the 45% support is crucial..Volunteerism is not a common culture in this part of the world. So we need to explain the need to mobilize people on the ground together to bring the change we all desire. It needs conviction from within to a cause, or else people would always expect to be rewarded or paid for whatever they do. We need therefore to do our best to convince people that we are doing all these for the good of all and the generations after us”.
The PKR leader, who enters the DUN for the first time as one of 3 rural representatives who succeeded in wresting seats from BN’s grasp, also makes a clear play for more practical support from urban voters.
The opposition, represented by DAP, triumphed in nearly all the city seats, because the towns have a far greater awareness of political issues and a more developed political machinery. However, with so many rural seats in the hands of BN’s traditional power-brokers, Baru Bian asserts that it is in the interests of town activists to do more to help PKR’s efforts to win more seats in the upcoming Federal Election. Many of the rural seats delivered strong votes for the opposition, narrowly missing victory – with more support they could win next time round.
“DAP can assist PKR or PAS to win by providing financial support and personnel to assist in the campaign and perhaps also on logistics”, he explains.
The PKR leader carefully talks up the unity between the opposition parties in this interview, despite recent reports of spats and conflicts. He accepts the reasoning behind DAP’s overtures towards SNAP and focusses on his own appeal to the young people of Sarawak to unite to behind his dream of ending corruption and bringing back a fair deal for Sarawak under the 20 point agreement. Should the opposition take power, he says that the first moves would be to restore the wealth stolen by current BN leaders and to work:
