Sunday 17 April 2011

Sarawak Election: Sarawakian Chinese Thumbed Their Noses at Chinese Parties in BN

Read here for more in Malaysian Insider

Polls show Chinese reject SUPP

The Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) suffered its most embarrassing defeat last night when the party, which claims to represent the Chinese community, lost to DAP in 12 seats, most of them in Chinese-majority areas.

When the polls results were announced, SUPP, the oldest party in Sarawak, found that it had only won in six of the 19 state seats it had contested. Ironically, only two of the seats are Chinese majority while the remaining four are Dayak constituencies.

The bleak outcome for the flailing party mirrored that of its coalition partner MCA’s performance in the peninsula during the Elections 2008 tsunami, when its parliamentary representation was nearly wiped out by half.

SUPP’s biggest blow last night was dealt when party president Tan Sri George Chan Hong, the six-term incumbent for the Piasau state seat was toppled by a political newbie in the DAP.

The 75-year-old Chan, who was also a deputy chief minister, was defeated by a 1,590-vote margin by first-time contender Ling Sie Kiong, a lawyer less than half his age.

Since the start of the 10-day campaign, SUPP had played the race card to woo voters, warning the Chinese community that it would lose representation in the state Cabinet if the party were to be defeated.

In an advertisement taken out in the Chinese-language dailies, SUPP’s message read, “If DAP wins in 15 seats, Barisan Nasional still forms government. If SUPP loses in 15 seats, Chinese representation in the government will be wiped out.”

But when the Chinese voters came out yesterday to cast their ballots, this message was clearly not on their minds. The party was heavily defeated in almost all of the urban and suburban Chinese-majority seats across Sarawak, mainly in the capital city, Sibu and Miri.

Of the 12 seats it lost to DAP, only two are Dayak-majority seats — Kidurong and Meradong — while the remainder are Chinese seats.

The Chinese community make up the majority in the hornbill state, followed by the Ibans, the Malay/Melanaus, Bidayuhs and the Orang Ulu.

In Kuching, SUPP also failed to defend Batu Kawah, long considered its stronghold, when incumbent Tan Joh Phoi was felled by newcomer Christina Chew, DAP’s youngest candidate at 27-years-old.

The party also failed to make inroads in Kota Sentosa, despite reports of an increase of over 1,000 postal votes in the area.

Instead, Sarawak DAP secretary Chong Chieng Jen managed a landslide victory and retained the seat with a 4,824-vote majority, more than eight times more than his previous margin in 2006.

SUPP was also devastated in its traditional strong-hold of Sibu, the timber town where the party first took roots, when it lost three out of four critical contests to a resurgent DAP.

Especially demoralising was the defeat of party vice-president Datuk Seri Tiong Thai King, the “Sibu mayor” who until this afternoon was considered near invincible.

SUPP’s only saving grace last night was in deputy secretary-general Datuk Wong Soon Koh’s thumping victory against fresh-faced challenger Alice Lau.

Soon Koh had managed to double his winning majority by more than 100 per cent compared to the votes he garnered in the 2006 Sarawak elections.

The party however lost in the Chinese majority enclaves of Pelawan, Bukit Assek and Dudong, all urban and suburban constituencies in the Sibu area. It had also lost in Meradong and Repok, two seats with significant populations of rural voters.

Soon Koh attributed his victory to his extensive services in the Chinese and Bumiputera areas.

“After the Sibu parliamentary by-election (in May 2010), I increased my visits to all the longhouses in my area. I visited them multiple times, even spending the night at their houses. I also set up five new service centres in the Chinese areas. This helped me garner support and I did not lose badly in these areas.”

When approached soon after his loss, Tiong refused to speak to reporters. Tiong lost to lawyer Yap Hoi Leong by 317 votes.


RELATED ARTICLE

Utusan Malaysia 's UMNO-Editors Want UMNO-BN to Abandon the CHINESE Vote in the Coming General Election

Read here for more

UMNO-owned Utusan Malaysia has told Barisan Nasional (BN) to ignore the Chinese community for not supporting the ruling coalition during yesterday’s Sarawak elections.

The Utusan columnist, Awang Selamat, also said that BN (read: UMNO) can still win in the general election without the support of the Chinese community.

The columnist, whose pseudonym is used by Utusan editors, said that BN leaders must learn from the state election when preparing for the national polls.

Awang said the ruling coalition (ie UMNO) must not fall into a trap of granting every demands of the community if they continue to vote for DAP.

In its weekend edition Mingguan Malaysia, columnist Awang Selamat
in his article “New Reality, ” said:

“The average Chinese voters have rejected BN and supported DAP.

Therefore the BN state government can no longer be too generous to give place to representatives from the community. Sarawak cabinet must be reflective of the decisions and attitude of the voters.

“Once again, the attitude of the Chinese voters is clear in rejecting BN. Awang believes that sentiment of Chinese voters in the peninsular is also the same.

The reality is that after dominating the economy for so long, the Chinese community wants to have greater influence and become a dominant political force.

The campaign to change the state government seems to only be accepted by a majority of the Chinese voters. The Bumiputera community still remains strong with BN."

If the Chinese voters continue to reject BN then we (ie UMNO) should NOT worry as there will be a way out."

He said that BN (ie UMNO) must formulate a new strategy without depending on the support of the Chinese voters.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

The election comments on the chinese by that garbage and racialistic media UM had finally proved that they are UMNO mouthpiece. What a sore loser. Just ignore these racialistic media reporting goons and move on. Make sure PKR/DAP/PAS kick all these goons assess out when GE13 comes.
As for MCA led by a pornstar and that includes Gerakan/MIC/PPP, they are all irrelevant to their respective community since 0308.
They are now acting like what the chinese said "dead chicken kicking the rice bowl cover".

Krishna said...

UMNO does not own Utusan. Utusan owns UMNO. They direct UMNO what to do!

Anonymous said...

The Chinese in Malaysia have to face the stark reality that to get a Fair deal in our country we have to throw away MCA,Gerakan,SUPP for these leaders are only serving their self-interest.I challenge all the bogus leaders of chinese based parties in the BN to QUIT BN and join other Indigeous party to fight for the Right of all Malaysians irrespective of race colour or religion and I am sure any Malaysians will give their wholehearted support.Accepting scraps from UMNO is a total betrayal of the the Trust of the people you claim to represent. Enough is enough the results of the elections CLEARLY demonstrate the frustrations of the chinese communities in East and West Malaysia of the Unfair practice existing in our country and the nons will unite with any party which will genuinely and sincerely fight for the rights of all Malaysians irrespective.
On the recent election results one thing is clearly noticable:

55% popular votes = 55 seats

45% popular votes = 16 seats

It doesnt need an expert to analyse the support the opposition garnered from the rakyat.
UMNO/BN days are numbered.

yapchongyee said...

I wonder what it was that this Utusan is referring to that the Malays have so freely given up to the demands of the Chinese ? Was it the right to a Chinese education, jobs in the civil service, Gov't loans, right to gov't subsidized housing or whatever ? What has the gov't given up to the Chinese ?

Malay privileges is an UMNO illusion, it did not benefit the Malays at all. There are 28 million Malaysians, 1 million civil servants; ask yourself how many Malays benefited from affirmative actions.

All about race, Malay this Malay that, for 54 years you Malays have nothing to find more important to do than race, 54 years of this shit and you are still at it. It took the Chinese just a mere 25 years to lift 400 million of their citizens out of poverty, and to think that Malaysia has only 28 million people. What has the gov't achieved in all of 54 years of preoccupation with this shit "the Malay race ! While all this insistence has been going on unabated, MALAYSIA IS GOVERNED BY AN INDIAN WHO CLAIMS HE IS MALAY. Little did the Malays know that RACE IS DETERMINED BY OUR DNA !

What good pointing fingers ? The Chinese have no other avenue than to succeed, or face dire poverty ? The Chinese are too good; we even over-took the Americans in just 25 years, therefore why blame it on the Chinese, when the truth is the Chinese just can't help themselves but grow rich !

Chinese as a race of people are WEALTH GENERATORS ! Malays are not, it is nature's way and you can't change nature. Blame it on our DNA.

Anonymous said...

It looks like Najib is turning to be a lame-duck PM. Abdul Taib Mahmud is supreme in Sarawak and Najib can't shake him. His deputy Muhyiddin Yassin is 1Melayu first and Utusan can just spew racist utterances daily without any fear of repercussion. 1Malaysia, my foot, it s all just talk, PM.
A point for thought, Umno has a large say in what Utusan publishes. But it does look increasingly obvious that the PM is not always able to control his soldiers, including his deputy.
Currently, Najib introduced the 1Malaysia email, only to quickly claim that it is a private venture. The educated can see through this - we know we're going to pay for it, we're just not sure how.
Want to know why Najib dare not take action against racist bigots like Utusan editor Zaini Hassan? The reason is he fears he will lose the support of the ultra-Malays, many of whom are staunch supporters of Umno.
Remember that poor Sin Chew reporter was arrested under ISA for "her protection" for much less and only for quoting a racist politician from Penang Umno. But no actions on that UMNO mouthpiece media Utusan. How disgusting and unfair. Anyway, thats reality in Bolehland.

Anonymous said...

All of us have to refine our political reading.The country has lost its way. We have forgotten what is enshrined in the consitution. We have strong institutions of government but unfrortunately they are staffed by people who are compliant to he ruluing class. We have government of the people, by the people, taht is not working for the people. Just take one issue. The language Issue. We made the right decision to have a National Language but it was made for the wrong reason.