THE stage is set for the next Sarawak elections after the main opposition bloc Pakatan Harapan yesterday announced its seat arrangement.

Yesterday’s agreement by PH on the seat allocation marks the first time the opposition agreed on a seat deal way before the election is called.

In the last elections, talks ended in acrimony and a fight in six seats.

Though PH – comprising DAP, PKR and Amanah – sealed a deal, the arrangement does not guarantee a straight fight with the incumbent Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) coalition.

GPS will face PH, the pro-independence Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) and an alliance of five state-rights-leaning groups calling themselves Gasak.

All will contest in all 82 state seats.

It will, therefore, guarantee multiple contests in the state elections, which should be called before mid-June and gives GPS an advantage as it is likely to split the opposition vote.

The Covid-19 pandemic is playing havoc on Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg’s attempt to set a date to dissolve the state assembly.

Abang Johari who leads the four-party GPS – Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS), Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) and Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) – reportedly set last October for the elections.

However, a sudden spike in Covid-19 cases in the state that month scuppered that plan.

But that did not deter PH and its rivals from working on its blueprint for the state elections.

In the agreed Sarawak PH seat allocation, PKR will contest 47 seats, DAP (26) and Amanah (9).

PKR will get the lion share of the Dayak-majority rural seats, while DAP continue to contest its traditional Chinese-majority urban seats.

DAP also got a sprinkle of Dayak-majority seats – mostly easily accessed semi-urban seats like Mambong, 20km from Kuching city, Kedup and Bukit Simuja further up the Kuching-Serian highway.

The party, which suffered a reversal in the last state elections in 2016 retaining only seven of the 12 seats won prior to the dissolution, is happy to give logistically challenged rural seats to PKR.

It won’t contest the two rural seats where it faced a mauling in 2016 – Pakan and Katibas.

PBK, which is opting to go alone after failing to find like-minded partners, last December named its candidates for the seven urban and semi-urban seats in Kuching.

These are Batu Lintang, Padungan, Pending, Kota Sentosa, Batu Kitang, Batu Kawa and Stakan.

Party president Voon Lee Shan said on December 3 the party decided to go alone “after much encouragement from our party supporters”.

The decision was made after a compromise could not be found with other parties “to work together in our quest for independence”.

He was referring to Gasak, the alliance of five groups – Sarawak People’s Aspiration Party (Aspirasi), Sarawak Workers’ Party (SWP), Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS) Baru, Sarawak for Sarawakians (S4S) and Sarawak Independence Alliance (SIA).

“We had tried to work out a formula with others who had a vision to fight for Sarawak independence but since no common ground been agreed or was found, Parti Bumi Kenyalang upon insistence of party supporters to go alone, then, agreed that the party fight for Sarawak independence alone,” Voon said.

He added that voters prefer PBK to lead the fight for Sarawak independence over other parties and individuals because “the party has clear strategies and directions on how to bring Sarawak free and independent from the federation of Malaysia if the party captures the Sarawak government”.

Voon will contest in the mixed urban seat of Batu Lintang, a seat he once held in 2006 as a DAP member.

He quit the party in a huff after DAP and PKR conducted a seat swap with DAP giving up his Batu Lintang seat in return for Padungan.

Chemist Raymond Thong Ee Yu will contest Padungan, aquaculture consultant Siaw Min Kin in Pending, software engineer Lue Cheng Hing to try unseat DAP state chairman Chong Chieng Jen in Kota Sentosa, electrical, electronic engineer Chai Kueh Khun in Batu Kawa, Wong Tun Teck in Batu Kitang and oil and gas engineer David Tiong in Stakan.

Voon said the decision to contest all these seats was made “after careful assessment of public acceptability of the party’s presence in the past six months of campaigning in these constituencies”.

PBK is campaigning for independence by way of a unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) rather than a referendum as promoted by some parties.

The only other credible opposition party, Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB), however, is keeping mum.

The once “GPS-friendly” party, headed by former second finance Minister Wong Soon Koh, has revealed little of its plans though Wong is expected to contest the Bawang Assan seat he had held for six terms since 1991.

Despite a perceived poor performance by DAP when it was in power in Putrajaya after the 2018 general election, the state DAP chairman is still harbouring the hope of unseating GPS that had governed for 57 years.

“Long enough. Time for a change,” the three-term Kota Sentosa assemblyman said. – January 3, 2021.