WITH Parti Keadilan Raykat (PKR) breaking ranks to allow its candidates to stand in five overlapping areas and its Pakatan Harapan (PH) partner Democratic Action Party (DAP) returning the favour by fielding a candidate in Batu Kitang, the State will see an unprecedented tussle between opposition allies for the same seats in an election.
On Sunday, State DAP chief Chong Chieng Jen issued an ultimatum to its political comrade-in-arm PKR to honour the agreement on seat allocations reached by the national leaders of both parties or DAP may respond by training its guns on Batu Kitang.
Later the same day, PKR vice president Tian Chua issued a counter-statement, pointing out Chong’s attack on PKR did not reflect the true spirit of a coalition partnership.
“Our door is always open for discussion with our allies like DAP. Hence, DAP should continue to negotiate with the PKR Sarawak leadership who has been given the autonomy to finalise the seats to be contested. There’s still time for reconciliation,” Tian Chua said.
It seems both parties have made up their mind to cross sword in the disputed seats even while “negotiation is still on-going” with DAP having decided to switch its candidate for Stakan, Abdul Aziz Isa, to Batu Kitang in a tit-for-tat to PKR’s adamant refusal to budge from its position to contest in the overlapping seats.
According to Aziz, he was notified of the switch at midnight just hours ahead of nomination.
DAP has fielded another ‘no-one-ever-heard-of’ candidate, Leslie Ting Xiang Zhi, to replace Aziz in Stakan, emphasising it had ‘let go’ of Batu Kitang to PKR and PKR should reciprocate by allowing DAP candidates to contest in the overlapping seats. The drama continues unabated.
Meanwhile, two Pauls from both opposition parties have submitted their nomination forms to contest in Mulu–Paul Baya from PKR and Paul Raja from DAP. Muluis one of the five overlapping seats, claimed by both parties.
Likewise in Mambong, DAP has fielded Sanjan Dik while PKR’s candidate is Willie Mongin.
The PKR versus DAP scenario has been extended to Simanggang where PKR’s Norina Umoi Utot will take Leon Jimat Donald from DAP.
Two other seats with both opposition parties having overlapping interests are Murum where PKR’s Abun Sui will face Matthew Silek from DAP, and Ngemah where Thomas Laja Besi from PKR will face DAP’s Richard Lias.
In January this year, Merdeka Opinion Research (MOR) conducted a poll on the two opposition leaders in the state and found PKR’s Baru Bian having an edge among Dayak voters at 40 per cent over Chong at 36 per cent.
Although Chong has a high rating (62 per cent) among Chinese voters, close to one-half of the Bumiputera respondents did not know him. Similarly, more than one half of the Chinese respondents did not know Baru.
PKR has insisted that its candidates are selected according to the Key Performance Indicator (PKI). However, sources say both PKR and DAP have engaged the same survey group to rate their candidates in the overlapping seats.
Except for Batu Kitang where there is a Chinese majority of over 50 percent, the other seats are predominantly rural-based. Going by the rationale that the state PKR chief is more popular among the native voters, it is reasonable for PKR Sarawak to cast doubts on the wisdom of the opposition’s national bigwigs to allow the mainly Chinese-based DAP to contest in the overlapping constituencies with overriding native electorates.
At the negotiating table, some of the PKR leaders were behaving like “young schoolboys trying their best to stay safe in a very hostile environment,” claimed by PKR’s Mas Gading branch chief Boniface Willy Tumek.
Boniface has resigned from PKR, citing that he would not be able to secure a nomination to stand in Tasik Biru as his party had agreed to let DAP stand in the area.
“In this environment, PKR’s ability to contest in any seats where there is an overlapping claim by DAP, is entirely at the pleasure of DAP,” a clearly disappointed Boniface pointed out.
Barisan Nasional (BN) has already pocketed two seats, winning Kota Sari and Bukit Kota uncontested. But the twin victories on Nomination Day are not celebrated with much jubilation. It’s still early days and BN is not taking anything for granted for the battle to come on the May 7 polling day even though Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem is enjoying an 81 per cent popularity rating across all segments of the population — Malay-Melanau, Dayak and Chinese.
In Batu Kawah, former UPP branch chairman Liu Thian Leong is standing as an independent against SUPP president Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian. Liu was the BN direct candidate hopeful but had to give way to BN component party SUPP at the eleventh hour.
One political observer said Liu who is without any baggage of the national BN’s purported problems of governance and GST issues, but armed with a good track record of fighting for Chinese education, could garner more votes than the SUPP president.
In his first battle with SUPP for the presidency of the United Association of Kuching/Samarahan Chinese Primary Schools Board of Management earlier, he won over the SUPP nominee.
Though Liu has denied joining the fray to split votes, DAP’s incumbent Christina Chiew could have the last laugh in the keenly anticipated three-cornered fight.
In Dudong, Benny Lee is contesting as an independent against Datuk Tiong Thai King. Lee was proposed by SUPP while Tiong was chosen for Team Adenan as a direct BN candidate. Will the incumbent Yap Hoi Liong from DAP benefit from the split of votes?
In Marudi and Tasik Biru, although Adenan has chosen the candidates based on their popularity, and the grievances of the locals against the incumbents — Sylvester Entri and Peter Nansian — there are strong undercurrents that supporters of the “unchosen ones’ will turn to the opposition.
Will the ‘Adenan Factor’ swing the Chinese voters back to BN?
How much inroad has DAP made in the rural areas?
These are the questions for the voters to answer come May 7 but it will take some serious soul-searching by the voters to find the right answers in some of the constituencies.