What’s at stake as Sarawak decides today

(MMO) – With much to prove, the spotlight in this 11th Sarawak election inevitably falls on how new opposition bloc Pakatan Harapan and the state Barisan Nasional’s Chinese component SUPP perform.

With a whopping 82 constituencies, Pakatan Harapan’s bid to defend its 15 seats gained in the 2011 state polls will be tough fights in their own right, especially where each win or loss could boost or break their tenuous toehold in the resource-rich state.

Unlike their “ubah” battle cry in 2011 when Tun Abdul Taib Mahmud was chief minister, the opposition, especially the DAP has been forced to switch tactics to counter his highly popular successor Tan Sri Adenan Satem, calling — one might even say begging — for protest votes against the incumbent.

According to Universiti Sarawak Malaysia associate professor Dr Jeniri Amir, the opposition’s resort to sympathy votes is because much of their change agenda from 2011 had been “hijacked” and implemented under Adenan.

“Autonomy, Sarawak for Sarawakians, they’ve all been hijacked by BN.

“GST and the RM2.6 billion donation issues are worn out issues that are not going to capture people’s interests here,” he told Malay Mail Online.

“They are aiming to win big, but if they lose even just a couple of seats, it would be a big blow to them,” he added.

Further challenging DAP’s hold on the urban Chinese-majority constituencies is SUPP, which appears to be bouncing back from its dismal show in 2011 and may even reclaim its lost seats this round.

Adenan has tapped SUPP president Dr Sim Kui Hian as a state minister if the latter wins in Batu Kawah, and expressed his desire to have more ethnic Chinese as part of his administration, providing an impetus for the party.

SUPP shamelessly rode on Adenan’s popularity in its campaigning the last two weeks. Some of its candidates had no qualms playing back recordings of the PBB president’s speeches on loudspeakers mounted on their campaign vans through the neighbourhood.

To Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia associate professor Dr Mohd Faisal Syam Abdol Hazis, this approach only highlighted SUPP’s desperation and would not necessarily see the party gaining support from it.

“The fact that they have to depend on Adenan’s popularity shows that they have nothing to offer as a party,” he told Malay Mail Online.

“After their huge loss in 2011, the party expressed a desire to transform. But people can see that the transformation is superficial as the party is still being led by the same people and they are not offering anything new.”

SUPP won six seats in 2011. However it can only defend two seats today as four of its assemblyman split mid-term to form a brand new party, United People’s Party (UPP), though still proclaiming loyalty to the BN.

SUPP’s seat allocation has also shrunk to 13 this year, compared to 19 previously even as the latest redelineation exercise added an extra 11 new seats in the state assembly.

While 82 seats are to be filled, BN has already won the Bukit Kota and Bukit Sari seats uncontested on nomination day.

Polling begins from 8am to 5pm today.