WHAT is certain in Sarawak this year is that the state government’s term ends in June – Covid-19 or not.

But what is uncertain is when the state elections can be held.

The uncertainty has scuppered the well-laid-out election plans of many parties and aspiring candidates.

“Officially, we have advised (our party members) a halt to mass gatherings and to comply with the Covid-19 SOP,” Desmond Kho, Parti Bersatu Sarawak (PBS) information chief told The Malaysian Insight.

It’s a stance all parties seemed to be taking as they do not want to be seen as law breakers by flouting the health and safety protocols in place to curb the transmission of the coronavirus that had infected more than 8,000 and claimed the lives of 76 in the state as of Friday.

But quietly and inconspicuously, the party – home to those who were sacked from the Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) and headed by former second finance minister Wong Soon Koh – has been working to stay connected with voters.

“Our branches are still attending to public requests for assistance, like food aid (in Sibu under the movement-control order) and other needs on a smaller scale,” Kho said.

He defines “smaller scale” as one-to-one interaction.

The party’s Batu Lintang assemblyman See Chee How is maintaining his profile by doing social work like assisting the Sarawak General Hospital in Kuching recruit people for the Covid-19 vaccines when they were on clinical trial.

Projecting his new profile as a PSB assemblyman is key to See’s political survival as he won the Chinese-majority seat for two terms on a PKR ticket.

He was PKR Sarawak vice-chairman until his sacking in February last year for supporting then deputy president Mohd Azmin Ali against president Anwar Ibrahim in the party’s power struggle.

With the exodus of nearly all of PKR Sarawak top leaders, including former chairman Baru Bian, to PSB, the Sibu-based cash-flushed party is touted as the strongest of all the opposition parties and could nick a seat or two from the ruling Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS).

Sarawak People’s Aspiration Party (Aspirasi), one of the smaller pro-independent parties, too, is adopting the same tactics to stay SOP compliant.

“We didn’t freeze our movements but we scaled them down,” said its president, Lina Soo.

“Instead of the candidates moving together, say six of us around Kuching, each of us will (now) just go quietly on our own around our targeted constituency,” said Soo, who has confirmed she will be contesting in the Chinese-majority urban seat of Padungan.

Aspirasi is also distributing flyers and leaflets. Walkabouts are also “in”.

“We have been giving flyers, calendars and masks, and talk to the people in the shops and coffee shops to promote the independence referendum cause,” she said.

Aspirasi is part of Gasak, an alliance of local-based political groups, including the Sarawak Workers’ Party (SWP), leaders from the deregistered Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak Baru (PBDSB) and independence-seeking movement leaders from Sarawak for Sarawakians (S4S) and Sarawak Independence Alliance (SIA).

Gasak will contest in all 82 seats at the state elections.

For another independence-seeking politician, it’s a hands-free policy for the moment.

“I don’t interfere in how they campaign,” said Voon Lee Shan, president of Parti Bumi Kenyalang.

He has left it entirely to individual prospective candidates how or whether they want to campaign during the pandemic.

Voon is preoccupied in his legal fight to stop former chief justice Richard Manlanjum and former chief justice of Sabah and Sarawak, David Wong Dak Wah, from practising in Sarawak.

Voon, a one-term DAP Batu Lintang assemblyman from 2006 to 2011, said the suits “have something about MA63, which we need to protect”.

He quit DAP soon after in highly publicised fall out.

The pandemic has left the PKR pick for the rural seat of Murum, Abun Sui Anyit, in a quandary.

The best method to canvass for votes in rural areas like Murum is still at a ceramah but with the ban on social gathering, holding one is out of the question.

“I am not worried about all the restrictions but the possibility that we (PKR campaigners) may be carrying the Covid-19 virus to the peoples that we meet,” said Anyit, who contested unsuccessfully in Murum in the 2006 elections.

He said he prefers to campaign face to face but since that is not possible, “it’s better to stay at home”.

To reach voters in the so-called “new norm” via the various social-media platforms is also a no go in rural constituencies like Murum and Baram.

“Remote areas, no internet coverage,” he said bluntly.

He said even if there is one, less than 40% of longhouses or settlements are covered.

On top of that, he estimates “from my observation during the visits to the longhouses before the emergency was called, fewer than 20% of rural people have hand phones”. 

The pandemic, which hit the state severely at the turn of the year and the state of emergency that will be in force until August, means an election cannot be held earlier than August.

Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg last month, however, said he is optimistic Sarawak can bring the Covid-19 numbers down to a level safe enough to hold elections. – February 28, 2021.