Pakatan Rakyat is gaining momentum in Sarawak, where the state election is due to be held by 2016, with signs that people in the rural areas are rejecting BN.

This raises a good chance of the opposition winning the state with a simple majority, says PKR Wanita chief Zuraida Kamaruddin.

People in the interiors of Sarawak, Zuraida said, are awakening to the lies and broken promises of the BN, and this is partly due to the efforts of Radio Free Sarawak .

Even after 50 years of BN rule in Sarawak, she said, Sarawak still lacked development, compared with the other states, despite being an major producer of oil and gas.

Zuraida, who is also Ampang MP, said the Baram Dam development remains a controversial issue, as with the Allah issue, on which she said the BN had shown disrespect to the Christian communities of Sabah and Sarawak.

Sexual attacks

“Previously, I raised the issue of the Marudi River in Parliament, where commuters had to pay RM15 for each ferry ride across the 20-metre river. How many people can afford that amount if they were to travel daily across the river? Shouldn’t a bridge be a more viable option?” she asked.

“BN would not have even bothered about the sexual attacks on the Penan girls if Pakatan had not intervened,” she said, referring to widespread reports of timber company workers sexually attacking the local Penan girls and women – complaints she said the BN stubbornly refused to acknowledge until it could no longer deny them.

These are among the reasons for the possibility of Pakatan winning at least 36 state seats in the next state election to gain a simple majority in the Sarawak state assembly, she said.

Sarawak has 71 state seats, and in the last state election held in April 2011, BN won 55 seats, while Pakatan increased its share to 15 seats compared to seven it held before that.

Zuraida ( right ) said this in response to the claim by Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud's political secretary, Abdullah Saidol, that the BN is bringing development to the state.

This worry of Taib, she said, showed the BN's recognition of the threat posed by the opposition coalition.

The overall increase of 26,000 votes for PKR alone in the 2011 state election, she said, showed growing support for the opposition.

Pakatan, Zuraida added, could make the inroad because of BN's incompetence in catering to the needs of the people and in tackling allegations of corruption, despite Taib himself being investigated by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.