Sabah an ‘expensive’ but useful lesson for Pakatan
Opposition forms shadow cabinets in Sabah and Sarawak, begins readying itself for state polls in 2016 and next GE14.
Free Malaysia Today
Smug from having won just over 51% of the popular votes in the recent general election, Pakatan Rakyat is re-aligning its strategy and focusing on Borneo.
Sabah DAP’s Junz Wong, who is also the national youth (DAPSY) wing publicity secretary said last night among its strategies was the early registration of young voters.
“We are not waiting till the last minute. Our targeted youth are between 17 and 21 years old because they will reach the eligible voting age of 21 years in four to five years time.
“There will be at least another three million more unregistered but eligible voters who missed their chance to vote in GE13.
“What we are looking at is another new six million voters in GE14.
“These group of voters will determine whether there will be a change of government in GE14,” said Wong, who is also Likas state assemblyman.
Wong’s comments backs party advisor Lim Kit Siang’s latest statement that the coalition had learnt an expensive lesson in Sabah in GE13 and would re-strategize its battle plans to win more seats in Sabah and Sarawak in GE14.
In the recent May 5 polls, although Pakatan only won three parliamentary seats, it did remarkably well in winning 11 state seats in Sabah.
This despite the months of puerile spewing by its leaders, internal sabotage and widely felt inconsistency with PKR and DAP’s stands in the months preceding the polls.
What is acknowledged here is that Pakatan surfed the “Inikali lah” wave triggered by a former party vice-president – now Sabah State Reform Party chief – Jeffrey Kitingan.
Jeffrey ’s two-year long ground breaking campaign to inform Sabahans about the 20 points and Malaysia Agreement while rekindling an ‘old flame’ within the KDMs failed to follow through in terms of structure and strategy –vital in any war.
In the end the Borneo Agenda gave Pakatan a leverage into state politics which in all honesty it did not really have to begin with.
All Pakatan partner PKR did was to add “tukar” to the “inikali lah” and allowed its de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim’s charismatic persona do the work. And before long Sabah was awash with “tukar, ini kali lah” drowning STAR.
To counter if not contain its bickering Sabah-based party ‘warlords’ Anwar brought in Lajim Ukin and Wilfred Bumburing and propped them up despite widespread discontent which divided the party.
Anwar handed over 10 parliamentary seats to Lajim’s PPPS and Bumburing’s APS movements. Both movements’ candidates stood under the PKR banner but failed to win a single seat. In the end only Lajim and Bumburing won their Klias and Tamparuli seats respectively.
The investment did not pay off in seats but it did help with the branding Pakatan and its partners.
Sabah PKR and DAP took a leap securing 11 state seats from one in 2008 general elections.
Good job in Borneo
Across the border, earlier in the Sarawak state polls in 2011, both parties won 15 seats – DAP (12) and PKR (3).
It was a good job, considering both Sabah and Sarawak are decades behind West Malaysia in terms of socio-political and economic empowerment.
One must remember that West Malaysia’s political reformation was seeded in the 1990s and spilled over in 2008 when the opposition wrested five states from BN.
Sabah and Sarawak were jolted out of their slumber only in 2008, when to quote PACO’s Anne Lasimbang “we realized we could shake Kuala Lumpur (Putrajaya).
“When PBS toppled Berjaya, we were young, ready to fight. But after winning the battle ( PBS took over the government) , we only then realized the power was with (the) federal (leaders). The rest is history as you know it,” she told FMT days before the GE13.
Now that the heat of anger and denial over an alleged fraudulent GE13, acceptance is setting in with the Pakatan camp. DAP and PAS at least are showing signs of moving on.
In Sarawak, the coalition is in the midst of forming its own shadow cabinet to stalk the performance of state ministers. In Sabah Lajim said they would do the same.
Sarawak is due for state election in 2016 at the latest.
Pakatan is aiming to up its score from 15 to at least 25 in the next state elections.
If 2011 was tough, the next polls will be an even tougher one for the opposition in Sarawak.
