As one of few readers from Sibu, Sarawak, I would like to express my point of view on the upcoming elections. I was born and raised here over the last 25 years but so far nothing is satisfactory. In fact, Sibu's status as once the second largest town after Kuching in Sarawak had now been demoted to number three. It was very embarrassing indeed.

We are falling behind other Sarawak cities like Miri and Bintulu. The BN factor hasn't played much of a role here. Thus, many young people here are not participating in this upcoming elections as I see it. Corruption is common, and abuse of power by BN MPs undeniable. Money politics is visible but the local mainstream press simply doesn't want to mention it. They can't and they never will. The truth can be heard and seen, but not read, by the public.

In the last general election, one MP was said to have spent RM10 million alone for his personal victory and almost every Sibuan knows about it. Nothing has been done about it. They even got helicopters to send the money to long houses in the rural areas. The MP won and the DAP candidate lost after a tough fight.

I still remember he promised Sibuans three years ago that a university will be built somewhere around this year. Well, he failed. He said it is too expensive to hire foreign lecturers to teach here. So far, only two colleges are available here as another one (the KDU) closed down in September last year. Whereas other towns are booming with their universities and colleges. Sibuans can only wait and see.

This is one reason I'm not participating in the elections. Sibu has no future, people are migrating to other cities like Kuching, Miri, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and even as far as Australia, UK, US and Canada. This can be seen during festive seasons. During normal times, our population is around 300,000 but when celebrations like Chinese New Year occur, it jumps to more than 500,000. Many people come back to visit their parents, relatives and friends but apart from that nothing much to do here really.

Our former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad came down for visit here yesterday for a meet-the-people session. I have no doubt that, indirectly, he is still a powerful figure to deal with.

Well, it won't make much of a difference. Sibuans know the BN will win again because they simply too rich and powerful.