SARAWAK would regain some of the six parliamentary seats won by the opposition in the last general election to cement its position as Barisan Nasional’s “fixed deposit” state, said Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg today.

“My sixth sense is we may be able to win more than 25,” said Abang Johari, referring to the number of seats out of the 31 seats Sarawak BN won in the 2013 general election.

His worst case scenario is a status quo – which is BN retaining its 25 seats and the opposition keeping its six urban seats.

DAP won five while PKR took one for the opposition the last time around.

“Sarawak will continue to be BN’s fixed deposit state,” he said in the meet-the-media session in Kuching today to mark his 100th day as chief minister.

Abang Johari’s optimism is based on last year’s state election results where DAP’s gradual gain in the state legislature in the last two state elections was rolled back by the enormous popularity of Abang Johari’s predecessor, Adenan Satem.

In the elections, DAP, which had 12 seats before the dissolution of the legislative assembly on April 11, lost six seats  – five to Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) and one to a “BN-direct candidate”.

DAP lost Batu Kawa in Kuching, Dudong in Sibu, Piasau in Miri; its “fairly safe” seat of Repok in Sarikei, and the “safe seat” of Meradong, also in Sarikei in central Sarawak.

The voters are predominantly Chinese in the six seats.

Abang Johari said his optimism was also due to the “policies we have to help the Chinese”.

Recently, the independent Chinese Middle School, which does not receive inancial support from Putrajaya, received a grant of RM6 million for administration from the state government.

“Of course we want the Chinese to come back (and support BN).”

Political analysts have generally agreed that the status quo would be maintained as they are of the view that the Chinese voted for Adenan in the state election but would not do the same for a scandal-plagued prime minister in the coming general election. – April  22, 2017.