On Najib’s fate, look to East Malaysia
When Adenan, who already has a huge majority in the state legislature, goes on to say he wants a stronger mandate to face Kuala Lumpur and secure Sarawak’s interests, he makes Najib’s men shiver.
Roger Mitton, Myanmar Times
Being the largest and most resource-rich, however, has not helped it win friends and influence people in the corridors of power in the nation’s capital, Kuala Lumpur.
The central National Front government just assumes that it will win nearly all Sarawak’s parliamentary seats, by far the highest in number from any single state, and it invariably does.
But that is starting to change. In 2008, the opposition won two of Sarawak’s 31 seats, and five years later, when Najib Razak had become prime minister, it boosted that to seven seats.
For Najib, the minor East Malaysian setback was of relatively little concern since more than three-quarters of Sarawak’s seats were still taken by his National Front candidates.
Prior to the election, Najib had referred to the bloc of seats from Sarawak as a “fixed deposit” that would help maintain his grip on power.
He does not do that anymore, partly because the loss of seven seats showed that the fixed deposit cannot be taken for granted, and also because charges of corruption and thievery have sullied his electoral appeal.
