History in the making

Thursday April 14, 2011

Analysis

By Joceline Tan

Sarawak politics will not be the same again after this election and the future of the Chinese is at the crossroads.

THE voice blaring through the loudspeaker sounded like Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and the crowd around the kopitiam in a suburb of Kuching was clapping and cheering away.

But there was no one at the rostrum under a large angsana tree. Anwar was far away in Sibu and the people there were watching a video of aceramah speech from a couple of nights ago.

The sound level was deafening and in between, they were entertained to a witty song about Tan Sri Taib Mahmud having to take on a hornbill aka the people. The song’s most popular line is Taib, jangan bebankan bumi kenyalang (Taib, don’t burden the land of the hornbills).

The crowd was waiting to catch a glimpse of See Chee How, the PKR candidate who is vying for Batu Lintang against Barisan Nasional’s Sih Hua Tong.

See is not a natural speaker but has a very honest face and made a name taking up controversial land cases against the Government together with his more famous law partner Baru Bian.

Sih, who is with the SUPP, used to be a political secretary to the Chief Minister, something which is now being held against him amid the anti-Taib sentiment.

There were actually more than half-a-dozen mounted loudspeakers blasting away that night – half belonging to PKR and the other half to the Barisan, which was having its own ceramah about 100m away.

It was like a contest of who could make more noise. Both sides were equally loud, although the crowd was definitely bigger on the PKR side.

But when word spread that MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek had arrived to speak at the Barisan side, part of the PKR crowd gravitated over to hear him.

As a result, Dr Chua found himself addressing a sizeable audience.

SUPP candidates are struggling on the Chinese ground because their party is seen as too subservient to the white-haired Taib whom the Chinese call Pa Mao.

Very few of them know how to respond to public opinion out there without appearing to be going against the leadership.

But Dr Chua is one of those Alpha males who does not pull any punches and had no qualms tackling the local Chinese sentiment.

His direct style startled the crowd: “I know all of you are angry with Pa Mao because 30 years is a long time. No one is perfect. No party is perfect. Umno is not perfect. Even myself, I am not perfect.”

He was basically acknowledging the frustrations of the Chinese after 30 years of Taib.

He said that was what happened when people overstayed their welcome and that Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was spot-on when he noted that one should never overstay in politics.

But Dr Chua argued that, while Sarawakians had the right to vent their anger, the point was that Taib had said he was going after the polls.

The Opposition had admitted that they could not win enough seats to form the Government. Barisan will return to power and Taib would still be there.

He said Taib had promised in front of the Prime Minister that he was going and the voters should trust Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak on this.

As such, voting for the Opposition would only bring short-term satisfaction for the Chinese in Sarawak.

“This election is not only about Pa Mao but about the whole of Sarawak. What we are seeing is Chinese fighting Chinese. We should ask ourselves what we really want,” he said.

It was the first time that any Barisan leader had addressed the Chinese sentiment about Taib in such a direct manner or referred so openly to Taib as Pa Mao and it grabbed the attention of the crowd.

It is evident that the Chinese want SUPP leaders to speak out and address their core anger and unhappiness.

But what Dr Chua wanted to stress most was that the DAP’s alliance with PAS meant that giving more clout to DAP would only strengthen PAS’ long-term goal to form an Islamic state. He asked the Chinese to think this over before they go to vote.

Chinese feeling about Taib is deep-seated and even the independent candidate in Padungan, Dominique Ng, is exploiting the sentiment.

A huge billboard allegedly put up by him shows Taib and his beautiful wife on their wedding day as well as SUPP president Tan Sri Dr George Chan and his Michelle Yeoh-lookalike wife with the words Tian tian, mi miwhich means “sweet and lovely”. The message being pushed is that the top leaders lead a dream life while others are struggling.

The prospect of SUPP being wiped out by DAP is very real and the ruling party has been reduced to an underdog role in this election.

After SUPP lost eight seats in the 2006 election, they also lost the prestigious mayor’s post for Kuching South. This post was given to a government servant.

More defeats are in store on April 16 and this time according to insiders, SUPP may lose the deputy chief minister’s post currently held by its party president.

Chinese representation in the state government is on the line not because Taib or the Barisan wants to punish SUPP, but because the basis for representation will not be there.

There is a great deal at stake for the Chinese in Sarawak.

It has often been said that politics in the peninsula has not been the same since March 2008. Three years later, history is happening in Sarawak and journalists watching it unfold say, this election is the greatest fight that Sarawak has ever seen.

Barisan will recapture the state on April 16 and it is likely to retain its two-thirds majority. But Sarawak politics will never be the same again.