DAP national vice-chair M Kulasegaran, one of the few senior party leaders allowed into Sarawak to campaign for their candidates, reminded audiences on his trail that there were serious downsides to Chief Minister Adenan Satem’s popularity.

Stumping for DAP’s Liton Leighton Manah in the Kemena seat near Bintulu, Kulasegaran rounded on Adenan’s advice to voters to think of him if they should dislike BN’s candidates.

Opinion surveys have put Adenan’s popularity at 80 percent which is high enough to presage a thumping BN win at the state polls scheduled for May 7.

“There are two downsides to this presumption by Adenan,” noted the Ipoh Barat MP in a ceramah aimed at voters in the constituency while accompanying Munjah on the campaign circuit.

“One dowside is that Adenan’s thinks his surplus of virtues will more than offset the defects of the BN candidates, and, second, he’s telling you that he will be running a one-man show with most of the rest of the BN slate along for the ride,” chided Kulasegaran.

The Ipoh lawyer reminded his audiences that there is a thin line between confidence and arrogance.

Adenan is in danger of crossing that line and not just in barring so many opposition politicians from coming to Sarawak to campaign.

“He says the state has barred racial and religious bigots from Umno and other bodies as well from entering Sarawak and so the current bans on several opposition politicians are not one-sided,” said Kulasegaran.

The DAP leader observed that Adenan is using a broad brush to tar opposition politicians whom he has banned from entering Sarawak.

“It’s a stretch to equate several of the banned opposition leaders with the rabid crowd from the red shirts and Perkasa,” argued Kulasegaran.

He said Adenan is being parochial when he contends that the 1MDB issue is not relevant to Sarawakian politics.

“How narrow this view is can be seen by whether Sarawakians could be exempt from the fallout should 1MDB fail to clear its huge debts and no Malaysian would be exempt from the burden,” he said.

“There will be higher taxes to pay should 1MDB fail to clear its debts and no Malaysian would be exempt from the burden,” he said.

“As it is the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is punitive and all Malaysians are feeling the pinch so a thumping victory for BN in Sarawak will be interpreted as justifying Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s handling of the 1MDB and GST issues, “ cautioned Kulasegaran.

He said a stronger opposition in Sarawak will push Adenan to do better while an outside victory for him will act as a disincentive.

“His excessive entry bans and his parochialism about 1MDB are warnings signals that he could switch from liberal to repressive with ease. Sarawakians must vote to push him to stay liberal and go forward rather than backtrack,” he said.