22-month Harapan rule a dead knot for Sarawak DAP in polls

 

Sarawak DAP deputy chief David Wong has cited the poor performance of 22 months of Pakatan Harapan federal rule as one of the reasons for its major loss in Sarawak polls.

Wong said the ruling performance at that time had become a “dead knot” for DAP to win over Sarawakians’ hearts.

“Sarawak DAP has been affected by the problems that happened during the 22-month Harapan government. We are unable to untie this ‘dead knot’.

“Although it is unfair to blame all the problems on Harapan, this is the reality of politics. We have tried our best to explain (to the voters) but the answer has already been given on Dec 18 (voting day),” Wong said in a Facebook posting today.

He also pointed out that the failure to reach consensus and cooperation among the opposition has benefited the ruling coalition - GPS, including the seat clashes among the opposition parties.

“Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) ambitiously wanted to take over the GPS and criticised DAP, only wanting to become a strong opposition etc... which has failed the seat negotiations of the opposition to contest one-to-one against GPS.

“Besides the internal fights (among the opposition), the election standard operating procedures (SOP) and the pandemic also affected the results of the state election,” he said.

Vote shares split 

Wong also said that the DAP vote shares in urban areas have been split by the parties contesting on the platform of independence.

“Let’s see in the next five years whether they will serve the people or they will just come out to split the vote during the election.

“Since the dust has settled, let GPS fulfil their election manifesto. We will check and balance to ensure they walk the talk,” he added.

Yesterday, DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang also said the party's setback was in part contributed by the low voter turnout and split opposition.

"The Sarawak general election should see the punishment of the GPS for causing Sarawakians to lose these rights for half a century, but this was not the case.

"Instead, the Pakatan Harapan parties were punished for failure to fulfil election pledges in 22 months - when they had a mandate for five years. This is clearly unjust, but life is full of such injustices," Lim had said.

This time, GPS picked up 76 out of 82 seats in the Sarawak Legislative Assembly, four more than in the 2016 state election.

The DAP saw its seats reduced from seven to two - Padungan and Pending - while PKR, which had three seats, was wiped out.

Wong himself failed to retain his Pelawan seat.

After the elections, PSB emerged as the main opposition, picking up four seats.

PSB had absorbed most of PKR key leaders after a split in the party. - Mkini