KUCHING
Wednesday, 17th February 2010
Wednesday, 17th February 2010
YB Dominique..Is PKR Ready to Fight Currupted BN?
The last time that Sarawak had its state elections was in May 2006 therefore its next election should be held not later than June 2011.
In the 2006 state election, the Sarawak BN, comprising Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu, Sarawak United People's Party, Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party and Parti Rakyat Sarawak, won 62 of 71 seats up for grabs.But BN Sarawak big win in the election was influenced by the result of the 12th GE in 2004 where the Barisan Nasional coalition was able to achieve one of its greatest victories in more than five decades.The BN won 198 of 219 seats in the national parliament and 505 of 552 seats at the federal level. UMNO obtained 109 mandates, the MCA 31, and the MIC 9. In total, the BN won 64.4 percent of the votes, 7.2 percentage points more than in 1999.UMNO candidates came first in 109 of 117 constituencies (93.2 percent). In 1999, they obtained merely 48.6 percent of the seats they had contested. UMNO candidates also gained 303 of 383 seats at the federal level. PAS, on the other hand, lost the election in the state of Terengganu and has since had only seven seats in the national parliament (six after by-elections). The PKR had only one member of parliament (MP). The DAP was the only opposition party that reached its goal, with twelve delegates in the national parliament.
One of the main reasons for the BN success in 2004 was the popularity of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, who had taken office in October 2003. He maintained a leadership style different from that of his autocratic predecessor, Mahathir Mohamad. Badawi is an orthodox Muslim and comes from an influential Malay family of ulama (Islamic scholars). Soon after assuming office, he introduced a number of reforms. After 2004, however, it became obvious that he had failed to live up to his promises of fighting corruption and poverty and of improving the tense relations among religious and ethnic groups. More importantly, expensive prestige projects were mostly not abolished.
But this coming election, Sarawak's BN has a very good reason to worry about. First, the opposition is getting stronger especially after The twelfth national elections in 2008 ended with astounding results. Despite the decades-long dominance of the governing coalition, the opposition was this time able to win a tremendous number of votes after its devastating performance in the last elections in 2004. Opposition politicians spoke of a “revolution” and a “new dawn.”
Secondly, the opposition allign especially Parti Keadilan Rakyat is getting stronger and well recieved by the dayaks. They feel that the existing dayak majority parties in BN coalition, Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) and Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) fail to fight for their most important assets, the Native Customary Land (NCL) and moreover, Datuk Seri Anwar is said to have promised Sarawak and Sabah that the chief ministers will be a Dayak and a Kadazan, respectively.
Thirdly, the crisis within and among the BN component parties in Sarawak. In Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) , the Sarawak BN backbone party there is a conflict between Melanau and Malay on succession plan for Taib Mahmud. In PRS, the conflict between Dr James Jemut Masing and a group that alligned to Donal Lawan ( a veteran politician and YB Snowdan Lawan father) is eminent.
In SPDP, Mawan action in replacing Enteri as Secretary-General with Ba’Kelalan state assemblyman Nelson Balang Rining has caused another crisis in SPDP. It was said among the "coffee-shop" politicians that Sylvester Entri and his supporters-namely Paulus Gumbang, Rosey Yunus, Datuk Peter Nansian and Dr Tiki Lafe were contemplating leaving the party and form a new one.
SUPP one of BN component party, the rift between Datuk Wong Soon Koh and Dr Soon in the formation of Dudong branch is one of the crisis that until now has not been successfully resolved by Dr George Chan.
PKR might be having some internal problem such as the "shaky and unclean" politicians ( How DSAI described PKR Assemblyman like Datuk Seri Zahrain Hashim) and the politicians without discipline and loyalty such as Port Klang assemblyman Badrul Hisham Abdullah and the two assemblymen from Perak, Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi of Behrang and his Changkat Jering counterpart Mohd Osman Mohd Jailu and a racist assemblyman like Zulkifli Nordin, they had left and the party had been cleaned but for those who are still with PKR, they will live in PKR's spirit and struggle.
When is the State Election?
According to reliable source to Bukittunggal.com, PBB is going to hold it 12th convention from Feb 27 to March 2 in Kuching. The convention will be officiated by PM Najib. With current development in Peninsular Malaysia whereby UMNO is potraying the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) as an unstable coalition, and with Anwar political future uncertainty with his sodomy trial (dubed as SODOMY II) in progress therefore the most suitable time for BN to hold the state election in Sarawak will be in March 2010.
I strongly believe that Taib Mahmud will dissolve the state assembly during the coming school holiday in March 2010.
PKR Sarawak...Are You Ready
Based on the feedback that I recieved from the ground in N25-Balai Ringin, so far PKR has not started any campaign there. I am doubt whether PKR is serious to wrest N25 from PRS. Unlike the PKR, PRS has started their campaign there with YB Snowdan and YB Masir Kujat distributing the MRP funds to the villages at upper Pantu. The latest was to TR Ngulu Empaling where a grant worth more than RM50K has been distributed to the village for the construction of its civic hall.
PKR..Pn Ibi are we ready...to challenge BN in N25?
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