Irene Chang
SIBU (August 1): The Proclamation of Emergency for Sarawak from Aug 2, 2021 to Feb 2, 2022 has received overwhelming support from opposition lawmakers and a businessman here.
Bukit Assek assemblywoman Irene Chang said the Yang di-Pertuan Agong was right to declare Emergency in Sarawak as the state is still not out of the woods yet with the Covid-19 pandemic still raging on.
She said six months is just about right to achieve herd immunity in the state against Covid-19 and by then, it will be safer for the election to be held.
“However, the state government should during these six months urge the Election Commission (EC) to put in more electoral reforms to ensure that elections can be held safely even if the pandemic is still with us on Feb 1, 2022 which is most likely,” she said.
She also suggested postal votes or advance voting should be made available to every Sarawakian living outside Sarawak so that they do not have to return to their home town to vote.
“Online campaigns should be given equal airtime for both the government and opposition in national television and radio,” she added.
Chang said Bersih Sarawak had recently proposed bold changes to the electoral system.
“I think they are good and workable proposals and the government should urge EC to look into that.”
Sibu MP Oscar Ling welcomed the decision with open arms, saying it was just to delay the state election which was good for the state to head in the right direction.
Oscar Ling
“With the Delta variant of Covid-19 getting more widespread in Sarawak and the number of cases keep rising in other states, we need to delay the state election or limit any big scale social activities and inter-district travel in order to contain this spread,” he said.
Moreover, Ling said the electoral roll was yet to be ready and special voting arrangement or some kind of electrical reform was needed in order for people to exercise their democratic rights and enable them to vote outside their voting areas.
In view that the Covid-19 pandemic had brought about dire impacts, he said everybody should be happy now that the state election had been postponed.
“With the Covid-19 situation in the state showing signs of recovery, we should not do anything rash that would only aggravate the situation,” he said, recalling the Sabah state election last year which literally caused the outbreak of Covid-19 nationwide.
Former president of Sibu Chinese Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Dr Gregory Hii, also applauded the move, saying it was not appropriate to hold the state polls amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, he opined that the six-months Emergency was a long period and hoped the government would come up with some strategy to govern the state.
“As we may not be allowed to do a lot of things during the Emergency, it will have serious impact on the lives of the ordinary people and business community.
“Hopefully, the government can come up with some details on its agenda during this six-month period to help alleviate the burden of the ordinary people.”
The Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah had decreed that Sarawak be placed under a Proclamation of Emergency from Aug 2, 2021 to Feb 2, 2022.
The proclamation prevents the state election from being held within 60 days from the expiry of the current nationwide Emergency on Monday.
The current State Legislative Assembly would be automatically dissolved after the Emergency ends on Aug 1. After that, the Election Commission would have to decide on when to hold the Sarawak election.