STRAIGHT FIGHT FORMULA NOT STRAIGHT?

By : EDWARD DAGUL

IN Sarawak, as in Sabah, people have been calling for the opposition to be sensible enough to reach a ‘straight fight’ formula to fight the BN. A straight fight against the BN boosts confidence among the people and synergises opposition campaigners. If this had been possible, the opposition might have won Ngemah and Telang Usang and other marginal areas where the combined opposition votes outnumber that of BN or were significant.

SNAP, the only local party outside the BN, was literally murdered by PKR, their ‘big brother’ in the Pakatan coalition, which had ‘offered’ SNAP 3 to 4 seats in the 71-seats contested. Blatant lies were made by PKR leaders against SNAP which are now proven to be completely false.

Allegations that SNAP was flushed with funds from UMNO were later confirmed to be false by PKR state chief Baru Bian. In the days that I spent in the rural areas, I saw that SNAP was short of resources. But PKR did not put up a campaign in some constituencies. In some areas, there was a complete absence of PKR banners, flags and ceramah.

It would have been to their mutual benefit if PKR had directed their resources in their winnable areas instead of contesting in 49 seats which 26 overlapped with SNAP. Either sheer folly or greed or suspicious motives might have driven PKR to contest all the seats targeted by SNAP. The only SNAP seat not disturbed by PKR was Pakan, the seat contested by SPDP (Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party) President, and that was because the PKR candidate did not turn up on nomination day. SNAP on the other hand had backed out from Ba’ Kelalan and other areas in order to benefit PKR.

DAP was smarter, concentrating their campaign in 15 areas and won 12. If DAP had been allowed to contest Batu Lintang (in Kuching) and Senadin (where PKR lost by 58 votes), DAP would have won anyway.

In Senadin, due to the dominance of the DAP campaign but low visibility of PKR, some voters were confused when they could not find the ‘rocket’ on the ballot paper. The small margin of 58 votes could have been reversed if PKR had put up a more high profile campaign there instead of simply riding on the DAP wave.

DAP’s Obama-style ‘Ubah’ campaign bore elements of the highly successful Taiwanese opposition green-wave of 2000. It was a contest between the brilliance and youthfulness of DAP versus the stale and lethargic SUPP, against a back ground of resentment against Taib Mahmud. Unfortunately, this campaign did not reach the rural areas.