Sarawakians rate Adenan highly on all counts

The Sarawak Chief Minister is politically savvy and has generated feel-good sentiments among the people with a few initiatives.

KUALA LUMPUR: The majority of Sarawakians, according to a recent survey by think tank Merdeka Centre and an NGO, the Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4), do not rate corruption as being high on their list of priorities despite being subject to many personalities noted for being on the take.

Corruption was still rampant throughout the state, said Faisal Hazis, a political scientist with Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas). However, the majority feel that Sarawak Chief Minister Adenan Satem had the ability and the political will to combat corruption, the survey showed.

“We found it quite surprising how people’s opinions on the state government or political leadership can change so quickly by a change of personality,” said Faisal. “We were surprised because we would think that people are more sophisticated and perhaps more experienced.”

“They would have seen a lot of new leaders make promises and ultimately fail to deliver them.”

That’s not the only contradiction in terms.

“There’s a culture of patronage,” said Faisal. “There’s this thinking that needs to be challenged and protested.”

“DAP and PKR will not be able to win the state by flashing one or two projects.”

He noted that the Opposition had made a good start in recent years, after having been in the state a lot longer, by working more on rural projects in places where it was felt that the Sarawak Government hadn’t come through.

Briefly, during the Good Governance Survey and Forum with Merdeka Center (MC) organised on Monday by C4, MC Chief Ibrahim Suffian disclosed that 68 per cent of the respondents in the survey were generally satisfied with the Sarawak Government’s performance.

Another 74 per cent, he added, approved of the new Chief Minister, and credited him for good administration. “They believe that he was taking care of the public’s general welfare following the retirement of his predecessor Abdul Taib Mahmud who was dogged by corruption-related controversies.”

Ibrahim and C4 executive director Cynthia Gabriel cautioned that this was merely baseline data, and a simple indicator of where current sentiments lay.

Adenan was politically savvy in his implementation of populist policies, continued Ibrahim. “These include a promise to review state mega-dam construction projects, besides generating feel-good sentiments among the people through a few initiatives.”

Adenan had also taken advantage of rising Sarawakian nationalism, he pointed out. “He had acknowledged local sentiments on the state’s autonomy and generally kept the Federal Government and peninsular-based opposition parties at bay.”

The Opposition, chipped in Faisal, had presented a united front in the last elections, and despite having lost other constituencies such as Dudong and Telang Usan, had managed to capture Ba’Kelalan. “This was due to the controversy over the Baram dam.”