Hudud, PAS and now, seat clashes could spell doom for Sarawak opposition

Fears over hudud and the Islamic state were determining factors in the 2001 Sarawak elections, and are now behind DAP's decision not to work with PAS ahead of next year’s state polls, said state DAP chief Chong Chieng Jen. The blowback from cooperation with PAS is worse than the risk of opposition parties such as PKR and Amanah contesting against PAS and the Barisan Nasional (BN). The prospect of multi-candidate fights between different opposition parties and BN is becoming real, even as their leaders try to ensure one-to-one fights. Multi-cornered fights in the state have benefitted BN in the past, despite the negative sentiments due to high inflation and a sluggish economy. “I don’t think an electoral pact with PAS will work in Sarawak. I don’t think we will get one-to-one contests where PAS is concerned,” Chong told The Malaysian Insider. DAP, Sarawak's biggest opposition party, has also not settled seat negotiations with PKR, and this could lead to both parties clashing with BN, further weakening opposition chances. 2001 loss In 2001, DAP was hard hit by a campaign by BN's Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP), centred on the hudud and Islamic state. Kidurong assemblyman Chiew Chin Sing said the campaign was so effective that all but one of DAP’s 13 candidates lost. Five years earlier in 1996, it had won three seats. “I remember they printed five flyers, each with graphic pictures of hudud punishments and they distributed to all the shops and houses in the seats we contested,” said Chiew, the sole DAP candidate to get elected in 2001. The campaign message was simple: vote DAP and Sarawak would be turned into an Islamic state complete with hudud and Shariah. In 1999, DAP and PAS were in the Barisan Alternatif (BA) coalition, and PAS had tried to implement hudud in Kelantan in 1993. Non-Muslim voters, the majority in Sarawak, were spooked by the leaflets. Not long after the 2001 polls, and feeling that its grassroots had also punished it in the 1999 general election for working with PAS, DAP left BA. “This is why cooperation with PAS is very dangerous for us,” said Chiew in light of the heated national debate over PAS’s campaign to get federal approval to enforce hudud in Kelantan. The Adenan factor In contrast, Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem won applause from non-Muslims for stating that Sarawak would never have hudud. Chong (pic, right) said this followed Adenan’s previous assurance that Christians would be able to use the term "Allah", another religious flashpoint for Sarawakians. “So Adenan right now is on an even stronger footing with non-Muslims compared to the opposition because it is still unclear whether they will work with a party that wants hudud,” said the Bandar Kuching MP. Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian, however, said after the formation of Pakatan Harapan, concerns over cooperation with PAS were irrelevant. PAS is not in the new coalition comprising DAP, PKR and Amanah, the party led by former PAS leaders. But Baru is open to the idea of negotiating with PAS to ensure that there are one-to-one contests against BN. Yet Chong fears that even such an informal understanding can be manipulated by their rivals to mean that the opposition was indeed working with PAS. Coupled with Adenan’s huge approval ratings as seen in a Merdeka Center poll, even a hint of cooperation with PAS can be disastrous for the opposition. “We have to be rid of PAS, otherwise Adenan will drain our support away,” said Chong. Competing claims An equally greater concern is whether DAP and PKR can work out their competing claims for seats in Sarawak’s smaller towns and rural areas, where both parties have seen increased support. DAP said it would contest 30 state seats. It currently has 12. In 2011, DAP won almost all state seats in Kuching, Bintulu, Miri and Sibu, and observers say the new seats it is aiming for will have to come in places where PKR has traditionally contested. “DAP is eyeing Dayak areas where we stood before,” said Baru, the Ba' Kelalan assemblyman. It is learnt that DAP is interested in these new areas with large Dayak non-Muslim populations, due to the goodwill it has built up through the Impian Sarawak initiatives. Since September 2013, Impian has completed over 30 projects that have provided remote communities with basic infrastructure such as proper water supply, bridges and roads, as well as free medical services. “If they claim they can do better in these seats, then we have to study those claims because we have put a lot of work in these areas as well,” said Baru. DAP is not backing down from its demands, and Chong argued that it was PKR which must reassess its strength. Chong said in 2011, PKR only won three of the 50 seats it contested. “In 2011, they said DAP did not contest rural seats so they had to spread themselves thin. Now when we want to contest rural seats, they complain. “So PKR has to be realistic. What is (its) strength? They are asking a lot but can they follow through?” – November 26, 2015.