PR infighting ends its Sarawak dream

Bickering among the three partners of Pakatan Rakyat in Sarawak is diffusing the dream that it will be able to run the state one day.

The relationship between Sarawak DAP, Sarawak PKR and PAS has been steadily deteriorating over the past months.

When they first formed the coalition in 2010, they did fairly well. The combined forces of the three parties won 15 state seats in the 2011 state elections to form a respectable opposition in the state assembly of 71 seats.

In the 2013 parliamentary election, the opposition coalition won seven parliamentary seats.

But the disagreements started early last year when PAS reiterated it wanted introduce hudud law. This was strongly objected by DAP not only in Peninsular Malaysia, but also in Sarawak.

Official communications between DAP with PKR and PAS has ceased since the middle of last year after the two parties took opposing stands on the implementation of hudud.

Several attempts to discuss overlapping claims and strategise their election campaigns have failed as DAP had refused to participate in the meetings.

Now the relationships appear to be irreconcilable as both DAP and PKR are going separate ways for the next state election which is likely to be either this September or in March next year.

PKR is insisting on contesting 49 seats, as it did in the 2011 state election.

DAP has declared that it is eyeing 30 seats - double that ran for in the last election which were mostly Chinese majority seats.

In the next election it wants especially some rural seats in line with its ‘go rural’ drive – and this would mean affecting 15 of the seats PKR had contested.

“We are eyeing more seats this time – at least 30 seats – as we want to help PKR in some rural and sub-urban areas because in the last state election they said we did not share the burden with them.

"So this time we will,” Sarawak DAP chief Chong Chieng Jen said at a news conference recently.

But Chong’s claim was challenged by the Sarawak PKR deputy chairperson of its state election committee, Baharuddin Mokhsen, who insisted that the status quo be maintained – 49 for PKR, 15 for DAP and seven for PAS.

“Only the 11 new seats can be negotiated,” said Baharuddin in a recent statement, adding that the party’s deputy president Azmin Ali in his recent visit, had made it clear that PKR was now to focus on all their 49 seats and to ensure that their machinery was in tip-top condition, and ready to go at a moment’s notice.

On allegations that PKR and PAS had shut the door on DAP, Baharuddin said: “It was DAP who shut the door on us and PAS, citing hudud as the reason.

"Since DAP has clearly stated that it has distanced itself from us and may even pull out of Pakatan, what else is there to say?

“However If DAP wants to return to the negotiation table, we more than welcome them in the spirit of Pakatan. But we can only negotiate on the 11 new seats that the Election Commission is planning to create with Parliament’s approval.

“Our position that the 49 seats PKR contested in 2011 are not up for grabs. We will maintain the status quo to avoid prolonged negotiations,” Baharuddin stressed.

However the strong stand by PKR is certain to harden DAP’s attitude because it believes it can go on without PKR and PAS.

A political observer noted that DAP is confident because it won 12 out of 15 state seats in the last election, while PKR won three – one urban and the other two rural. PAS did not win any.

However he noted that in the next state election, the opposition parties are dealing with Chief Minister Adenan Satem and not the former chief minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud who had been subjected to ridicule, allegations of corruption, abuse of power and the practice of cronyism by the opposition.

In contrast Adenan is known in Sarawak as ‘Mr. Clean’.

Since he took over as chief minister in February last year, Adenan has been working hard to win over the Chinese votes by being generous in his allocations to independent Chinese schools - his targets particularly being those who had voted for the opposition.

Therefore, it would be fatal, the observer opined, for DAP to go alone without the combined forces of PKR and PAS.