Sarawak

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As evident in the 2011 state elections, much has changed in Sarawak since the general election in 2008, when the ruling party made an almost clean sweep of the 31 parliamentary seats in the state. Back then, Sarawak and Sabah were instrumental in ensuring the BN’s continued grip of federal power by contributing almost 40 per cent of the ruling coalition’s parliamentary seats.

With the exception of Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), all Sarawak BN component parties suffered declines in their popular vote. The Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) was the biggest casualty. The ethnic Chinese-dominated party lost 13 seats and suffered a decline of 6.2 percentage points in the popular vote, while the Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) lost two seats with a drop of 5.1 percentage points of the popular vote. Another Sarawak BN component party, Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS), failed to retain one of its nine seats, losing 1.2 percentage points of the popular vote.

On the opposition front, the biggest victor was the Democratic Action Party (DAP), which secured 12 seats. Although there was a marginal decline (0.1 percentage points) in the DAP’s popular vote, the drop was insignificant because the party already had a substantial share (20.2 per cent) of the popular vote in 2008. Despite winning only three out of 49 seats that it contested, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) still made a commendable showing by gaining 17.4 percent vote, a huge nine percentage points increase from 2008. The rest of the opposition parties, however, failed to make any impact except for an independent candidate who won in the highly contested seat of Pelagus.

Clearly, the call for change came from Chinese voters who had had enough of strongman rule given the monopoly of Sarawak’s politics and economy by Muslim Bumiputera elites led by Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud. In the 2011 state elections, the BN’s popular vote in Chinese majority seats dropped below 40 per cent which represents a 12.9 percentage points decline from 2008 (see Table 1.2). Apart from Taib’s leadership, the Chinese rejected SUPP due to several issues such as the party’s failure in standing up against the Chief Minister, alleged corruption of BN leaders, and the Al-Kitab and Allah rows.

The Sarawak Chinese’s revolt actually started in 2006 when the opposition managed to capture seven out of 15 Chinese majority seats. Back then, the revolt was mainly confined to the Kuching Chinese as made evident by the opposition’s success in capturing four out of five Chinese majority seats in Kuching. But the 2010 Sibu by-election which the DAP won despite an electoral onslaught from the BN led by Prime Minister Najib Razak signalled that the Chinese revolt had spread throughout the state.

Non-Muslim Bumiputera voters rejected the BN due to several pressing issues affecting them such as the alleged marginalisation of the community, NCR land conflicts, inequitable development, dam issues and the al-Kitab row.

Muslim Bumiputera voters, on the other hand, still supported the BN since they have long been dependent upon state patronage, are scared of losing Muslim Bumiputera political power at the state level, and display a cultural subservient attitude towards perentah (government).

All eyes will be on Sarawak in the coming general elections. With 31 parliamentary seats or 14 per cent of total parliamentary seats, Sarawak is a key state for both BN and PR en route to Putrajaya. In 2008, Sarawak BN contributed 30 seats or 21 per cent of the total parliamentary seats to the ruling coalition, enabling the BN to remain in power at the federal level.