EVEN if some of his colleagues in the state cabinet failed to see the fall of Barisan Nasional, Sarawak Minister in the Chief Minister’s Office Abdullah Saidol did not.

“I said it publicly two years ago and that’s what you get for not taking us (Sarawak) seriously,” he told Malaysia Decides about BN’s loss of 10 federal seats in the state, which contributed to the fall of the coalition that had governed Malaysia for six decades.

Abdullah, who was chairman of Sabah’s BN Backbenchers Club in 2016, said he warned Putrajaya back then not to assume that the state would remain BN’s fixed deposit in GE14.

He said BN had to keep the promises it made in the 2013 general election on demands for greater state rights and autonomy from the federal government under the 1963 Malaysia Agreement.

“Sarawak was taken for granted. They did not take us seriously and they have paid for it.”

Only parliamentary seats in Sarawak were involved in GE14, as elections for state seats were held in 2016.

Abdullah said the arrogance and “feudal behaviour” of some Umno leaders were also to blame.

He cited the clash between former tourism minister Nazri Aziz and the state’s counterpart Abdul Karim Hamzah over the controversial tourism tax.

Political analyst Jeniri Amir said BN paid for its failure to keep its promise to provide rural folk with basic amenities.

“They have been asking for basic things, clean water, electricity, good roads for 55 years.

“The still failed to deliver all those. They promised and promised but they never delivered.

“BN underestimated the power of the rural voters. They take them as fixed deposit but don’t treat them as fixed deposit,” said the Universiti of Malaysia Sarawak political scientist.

“They have been pushed to the wall and they have reached the tipping point. This is a wake-up call for the state BN.” – May 10, 2018.