Can BN find 82 new ‘ailment’-free candidates?

Stanley Bye Kadam Kiai

In the past it would have been more difficult to secure a Barisan Nasional endorsed-candidacy than to win in an election.

The peoples’ trust in the BN at that time was so strong that any Tan, Daud and Hari would have won had they contested in the election on a BN ticket.

But March 2008 gave the Umno-BN coalition a painful jolt. It lost its two-thirds majority in the Dewan Rakyat and five states to the opposition.

Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak attributed the opposition’s success to four ailments which affected the BN’s elected representatives – ‘delusion, amnesia, inertia and arrogance.’

In the coming 13th general election, the BN will need 82 new faces to contest in the constituencies held by the opposition.

What criteria will the BN use to select these 82 new ailment-free candidates? What kind of persons will the BN choose?

Will the BN carry out a personality test so that those who are selected to be its candidates will not likely to suffer from the four ailments he named?

What if all the 82 new faces are perceived to be arrogant in their outlook and style. Will they be able to take back the seats from the opposition?

Sarawak has been classified as a ‘fixed deposit’ state for the BN, which means that no matter what the government or the opposition does or does not do, the BN is going to win big here.

In the March 2008 general election BN won 30 of the 31 parliamentary seats in the state. It lost one more seat to DAP during the Siby parliamentary by-election. It now has 29 seats.

How will BN select?

Does this mean that Sarawak BN parliamentarians do not suffer from the diseases of delusion, amnesia, inertia and arrogance as experienced by their colleagues from the other states?

Are BN parliamentarians in Sarawak really that good that they could win easily in an election in the state? How about the state assemblymen? Are they as good as their parliamentary counterparts?

For the forthcoming 10th Sarawak state election which must be held within the next seven months, of the four BN component parties in the state, only Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) has indicated that it will have at least 10 new faces.

It is rumoured that of the 10 incumbent PBB state assemblymen who will be dropped or have declined selection, seven are from its Bumiputera Wing, while the other three are from its Pesaka Wing.

Why are some of these assemblymen being dropped? Have they suffered from the same ailments of delusion, amnesia, inertia and arrogance? There are many other reasons.

One reason could be because they won by slim majorities in the 2006 polls and that retaining them is a risky choice.

The second could be that they have not been performing well as the peoples’ representatives and the third, they have lost popularity.

Age, lack of drive and the loss of positions or stature in the party could be the other factors.

Giving way to younger candidates is a noble act as they may bring in fresh idea and are likely to be more energetic, enthusiastic, creative, innovative and have greater flexibility.

They may even be more knowledgeable in certain matters affecting the people.

The question for BN now is how do you select a candidate who is not likely to suffer from the four ailments mentioned by Najib?

The above is an excerpt of an article which appeared in Sarawak Update. The writer is a senior lecturer with the Faculty of Social Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak.