Four Sarawak local mainstream newspapers in different languages yesterday published special pullouts that highlighted BN and Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud's contribution to the state, drawing accusations of campaigning for the ruling coalition.

Among the local editions of four dailies, three are owned by the Umno-linked Media Prima - New Straits Times , Berita Harian and Harian Metro , and another is owned by timber tycoon and media mogul Tion Hiew King - Sin Chew Daily .

NONE The special supplements applauded the “development politics” concept introduced by Taib,  illustrating that the Sarawak economy is at its peak, on track to become a developed industrial state by 2020.

The pullouts published by Harian Metro had 12 pages, New Straits Times and Berita Harian had 24 pages each, while the pullout of the nation’s best-selling Chinese daily Sin Chew Daily trumped them both with 48 pages.

All four pullouts highlighted BN’s achievements in various sectors, including the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (Score), tourism, agriculture, NCR land titles, lower land renewal premium and the Bakun dam.

NONE The pullouts only focused on information related to the BN and none on the opposition. It was not stated whether they are campaign advertisements.

However, the contents were very similar to BN’s manifesto launched on Thursday which vowed to turn Sarawak into a developed state by 2020 and the richest state by 2030.

Sin Chew Daily 's pullout, headlined  '10th Sarawak state election special report', claimed Taib had transformed Sarawak during his 30-year tenure, hence was dubbed the 'architect of modern Sarawak'.

It also described SUPP president and Deputy Chief Minister George Chan as 'father of Miri’'s development' who managed to develop the oil city to surpass Sibu to become Sarawak’s second largest city in 15 years.

Chan is seeking his seventh consecutive term as assemblyperson for Piasau, a seat sited in the parliamentary constituency of Miri.

NONE The pullout also rebutted many allegations by the opposition, claiming that Sarawak still retains 80 percent of its forest, Malaysia’s fuel price is the cheapest in the region, increasing bumiputras’ income through the development of NCR land, and that the Bakun dam will provide sufficient energy for Sarawak’s industrialisation.

'The media should remain neutral'

Wong Meng Chuo, coordinator of election watchdog Sibu Election Watch, pointed out that the media should maintain neutral during elections and refrain from publishing such publicity material.

However, he was not surprised as this had happened in the last state polls.

“Judging from the content, they should be categorised as advertisements but they were reported as news.

Wong added that the exploitation of media by the BN would definitely affect the election result in favour of the ruling coalition.