KOTA KINABALU: Sarawak Barisan Nasional (BN) may have convincingly won the recently concluded state election by retaining two-thirds majority after winning 55 of the 71 seats contested.
Despite having lost in most of the predominantly Chinese urban constituencies, BN has remained strong in the traditionally Bumiputera-majority semi-urban and rural areas.
At least that was what the election results indicated. On closer look however, not even those traditionally BN strongholds were safe as they were thought to be.
In the Iban (Dayak) majority areas, there was a danger of BN voters thinning out, not because of fading support but because of migration involving their youths who had moved out from their hometowns and never to return to their longhouses, or to cast their votes, for that matter.
In Ulu Katibas and Ulu Tekabit for example, more than 20 longhouses stood half empty as the youths left their villages to work in the city, with many having gone to either Kuala Lumpur or Singapore and other further destinations to seek employment.
Those left in the longhouses being only the elderly and the young, there is always the danger of Iban voters in the rural areas eventually to be drastically reduced.
The young children, many of whom are left with their mothers or in some cases with their grandparents, are quite likely to follow the footsteps of their fathers and move out for better living in the urban areas and overseas, get married to someone other than their own and never to return home.
And their offsprings will grow up never to know the life in the longhouses like their grandparents had, and more importantly will not adhere to the same political beliefs of those before them.
With the opposition gaining strength in the urban areas where the new generation of rural community are migrating to, the future may not hold any promise to a party which hitherto have been banking on the support of the rural voters.
More immediate, BN needs to think about the wives and parents of those youths who have left, as they pose the question as to what the government is doing to keep their loved ones from leaving the villages.
Underneath this political turbulence, lies a more far reaching delicate social issue, which if not handled wisely could spell disaster and doom to the government of the day.
In fact, this was among the issues of concern observed by Putatan member of parliament Datuk Marcus Mojigoh while campaigning for BN in Sarawak’s rural areas ahead of the state poll last Saturday.
“Wives with little children had been left behind by their husbands who went ‘bejalai jauh’ (traveling afar).
One example is my cousin-in-law. A ‘tuai rumah’ named Melayu had left to work in Brazil and is now in the Solomon Island as a timber worker.
Many women in the longhouses have similar dismal stories like this.
“Some of the husbands have remarried and the children of these longhouses grow up not knowing who their fathers were,” he said when recalling his recent trip to the Land of the Hornbills.
Apart from broken families, the stories of young men migrating out of their villages and out of the state also depicts a tale of untold economic suffering by those who have been left behind. Without the help of the younger and stronger family members, many families had no other alternative but to leave their ancestral lands unattended turning them to bushes and secondary jungles.
“Durians from trees of hundreds of years old are left uncollected, rubber no longer tapped and cocoa orchards not tended to.
The fruits are only for the wildlife …. such a waste.
“Planting hill padi used to be very important for the indigenous people. It is now in a state of inertia. Longboat services are now operated by the mothers.
“Those left behind are producing less. Taking into account the transportation cost involved, marketing the local products is no longer viable.
Thus, agricultural produce are left to rot and the people are making less money,” said Mojigoh. As a result, children often could not attend school because schooling is no longer affordable. In Nanga, the total number of pupils in a school of six classrooms is less than 50 children, according to Mojigoh.
“The big question is what is the government doing about this. People are starting to perceive as if the government purposely omits addressing the migration issue so that they won’t have to spend money to build schools, clinics or to provide electricity and clean water in these hinterland areas,” he said.
The government is in danger of losing the confidence of the rural populace, much sooner than later, if nothing is done to answer these questions. Mojigoh who spent six days campaigning in Katibas and Ngemah, said the people had started to accuse the state government of ignoring the plight faced by these rural communities.
But the federal government has been trying to remedy the situation, with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak himself visiting these places ahead of the election and announced a road project connecting Kapit to Sibu costing RM300 million. The announcement made in Song was timely, on April 15 (just a day before polling day.) Prior to this, Rural and Regional Development Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal went to Song to officiate a ground breaking ceremony for another project road from to Temalat, costing RM76 million.
“The people there, I believe, have been given their confidence back. BN has managed to answer their questions and convinced them of the new plans being implemented by the government, such as the “Touch Point” programme and the “Blue Ocean Strategy”, to effectively deliver development to all levels of the community, including those in the rural areas.
“The constituents were also convinced to reject the opposition, who do not have the leadership to ensure prosperity among the people,” said Mojigoh.
As successful they had been in convincing the voters, it would not be of any good if there are no voters left in these rural areas in future.