The people of Sarawak have been urged to vote in a strong opposition in the next state election expected early next year.

Sarawak DAP chairperson Wong Ho Leng said this was important to check and balance the all-powerful state BN government and it would ultimately benefit the state and people.

A strong opposition in Sarawak is vital and viable to check the maxim 'the king can do no wrong,' he told malaysiakini today in an interview.

"There's a tendency by BN leaders and members not to criticise even when things went obviously wrong for fear of being sent to the political freezer or even expelled," Wong explained.

"The consequences for not toeing the party line is drastic in Sarawak," he continued, claiming that no one in the BN dares tread on important political toes for fear of severe ignominous treatment and reprisals.

On the recent name-calling by Deputy Chief Ministers Dr George Chan and Alfred Jabu against the opposition, Wong said it was an attempt to falsely enhance their own diminishing confidence in the coming election.

Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mamud had also accused opposition parties of merely resorting to 'rhetoric brand of politics' as he claimed they had no substantive issues to raise.

Wong said the state BN leaders were bankrupt of ideas and had to resort to calling the opposition names, adding that this seemed to be their more recent political brand.

Chan has asked his party collleagues to go on the offensive, with an apparently more activie opposition who in recent months have started their own campaign on the ground to try and make a better show in the coming elections which must be held by September next year.

The state BN controls all but one of the 62 seats in the state assembly. The new assembly will have 71 seats, with nine new seats. Taib's Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) alone will contest in 35 seats, leaving the rest to be divided among the Sarawak United People's Party (Supp), Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) and Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS).

Apart from DAP, other opposition parties are Sarawak National Party (Snap), once a BN member, State Reform Party (Star) and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR). A group of Dayaks, formerly either Snap members or the now defunct Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) members, have applied to form a new party they want to call Malaysian Dayak Congress (MDC). PAS also has a presence in Sarawak.

Role of an auditor

Wong admitted that the opposition is weak in Sarawak, and the label that the opposition cannot deliver 'is a classical case of a strong government not knowing the role of an opposition (in a democracy).'

"It is not true that the opposition only resorts to 'rhetoric brand of politics'. The opposition performs its role as an auditor to the government. The tax payers benefit from a good and responsible audit," he said.

"The taxpayers do not pay a single sen to the opposition. To the government was the mandate given. It is the ruling parties that have to deliver," he added.

On BN's claim that it would make a clean sweep in the next state election, Wong admiited the BN would still retain power.

"But DAP is confident to increase its number in the new state assembly. This is because a wind of change is already blowing across the Sarawak political landscape.

"The people have seen enough of an overstaying chief minister and the BN's monopolistic hold to power," he added.