YOURSAY | ‘Elections, like in a war, is a question of who controls the ground wins.’

Why DAP, PKR failed miserably in Sarawak

Drngsc: Writer Adrian Lim, for your information, there are many West Malaysians who care very much for the welfare of East Malaysians, We feel very sad that after 60 years of Malaysia, although you are both very, very rich, yet you also lack many, many basic amenities. Helping our brothers in Sarawak develop is part of our human concern.

Why did we lose in the 11th Sarawak state election? Although you like to preach your favourite hobby horse, you have blatantly avoided to mention how undemocratic that election was. It was neither clean, free nor fair. The 11th Sarawak state election as it turned out, was more like a Russian Duma election than a Westminster-style democratic election.

Money was allegedly raining from the skies, politicians were barred. Election monitors were allegedly asked to leave. A 52 percent voter turnout at 4pm became a 70 percent voter turnout two hours later. Yes, the Election Commission (EC) said that BN won. What a hollow victory! How do you win an ‘undemocratic’ election, democratically?

Mushiro: Adrian Lim is talking after the horse has bolted from the stables - and not even taking advantage of hindsight. If all the seven points were followed, does it mean the redelineation exercise, the money politics, the last-hour mysterious boost of voter turnout, the fear tactics, the Rela, police, army postal votes would have crumbled?

Touche: DAP and PKR failed but did not fail miserably. BN took only 54 percent of the total votes and won 72 seats while DAP/PKR/others took about 46 percent of the votes and won only 10 seats. Why? Was it because of alleged gerrymandering?

Bob the builder: The mentality of the East and the West is totally different. We can't be asking them to follow our mentality from the West, that was the main point Adrian Lim pointed out to the public.

While we might have a better vision for them (the East), we have to word it out in a very polite way so as to make them comfortable and by doing so, we can finally be friends with them and get things done properly. It is good advice from Adrian Lim. Cheers.

Justice: In the recent Sarawak election, like Malaysians giving Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (Pak Lah) a try when he just replaced Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Sarawakians also generally just want to give Adenan Satem a chance.

For the Sarawak opposition front, until now none of its leaders can offer a credible alternative to Adenan as CM of Sarawak. And with the state DAP and PKR leaders cannot even seeing eye to eye or unable to form a united front when going into the election battle, who can blame Sarawak voters for losing confidence in DAP and PKR?

DAP and PKR also still cannot attract credible and effective candidates in the rural seats. Grassroots activism works by DAP and PKR to control the ground, that is, the voters in the longhouses, are also still insufficient. They need to urgently identify, train and expose more grassroots activists who can control the ground for them and to help them counter BN propaganda and election goodies during the election.

After all, an election, like in a war, is a question of who controls the ground wins.

P Dev Anand Pillai: Dear Adrian, nice viewpoints and they are worth taking note, but wouldn't it be better if Sabah was for Sabahans and Sarawak for Sarawakians? If you claim that the Malaysia Agreement of 1963 is an agreement of equal states, whereby the states of Sarawak and Sabah are to become independent members of the Federation of Malaysia, then Putrajaya should pay heed to it.

But in reality they (Putrajaya) don't care, you are just a safe vote bank. So it is not the fault of West Malaysian parties; it is you East Malaysians who do not have the guts to seek a referendum and get out of the Federation of Malaysia.

Prudent: Adrian Lim, you are still naive like your fellow Sabahans. Ha-ha-ha. You did not 'see' the alleged gerrymandering and cheating, the money for vote buying, the shutting out, that is, decapitating of most of the the opposition's most potent campaigning leadership from Sarawak and the sudden surge in turnout in the last hour.

Go and read the articles by Bridget Welsh and the alarm raised by Bersih. I hope you won't wallow in your naivety much longer. Otherwise, you will surely become like your fellow Sabahans who were royally 'screwed' and ended up with a Muslim-majority state. The Sarawakians are likewise waiting to be similarly treated as they, by and large, bowed their knees to 'cash-is-king'.

The Analyser: Prudent, Adrian Lim probably missed seeing the well-constructed philosophy and relevant policies that the opposition parties had developed to encourage the voters of Sarawak to support them. He probably also missed seeing the united front that the Pakatan Harapan was supposed to present to them.

All they saw was race, religion, personalities, hate, divisiveness and underlying all that is their longstanding mistrust of the Chinese from their day-to-day experiences of having to live with them. The gerrymandering and vote buying was always going to exist in a Malaysian election. Question: What did the opposition do to counteract those dirty dealings? Answer: They did what they always do... nothing.

Oh My God (OMG), Adrian. Are you trying to promote the concept of a democracy? Surely you know that the UNdemocratic INaction Party has officially outlawed democracy as it interferes with certain people's self-appointed right to rule the world.

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