DAP says Sarawak win reflects its broad support

The Sarawak DAP claimed that it has broad-based support amongst Sarawak’s major ethnic communities despite only winning in Chinese-majority seats in yesterday’s election.

Sarawak DAP chairman Wong Ho Leng based this assertion last night on its wins in Dudong, Batu Kawa and Kidurong, areas where there are sizable Dayak populations.

“These victories are a strong message from the people. We won in mixed seats with sizable Dayak populations. So the Dayaks have spoken through the DAP,” said Ho Leng, who managed to retain the Bukit Assek seat with a 9,000-over vote majority.

The Dudong state seat is 51 per cent Chinese, 36 per cent Iban and 11 per cent Malay/Melanau. Kidurong is more than 60 per cent non-Chinese and half of Batu Kawah’s voters are non-Chinese.

The DAP’s campaign through-out the past 10 days in Sibu has been tailored mainly for a Chinese audience.

Except for brief appearances by Pas president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, DAP chairman Karpal Singh, Puchong MP Gorbind Singh Deo and Zairil Khir Johari, all its ceramah speakers have been Chinese.

The party’s spirited campaign workers, most of whom are volunteers, combed through the food courts, restaurants, businesses and housing estates in the Sibu town centre and its suburbs.

However, the party had trouble canvassing for support in the scores of longhouses that lie outside Sibu or among the Malay/Melanau community. It was a mantra among DAP leaders and activists through-out the campaigning period that the party would pull out all stops to gain 80 per cent of the Chinese vote. The non-Chinese vote they believed, was already “lost” to the Barisan Nasional.

Ho Leng refuted this, saying the wave of support for the DAP also came from bumiputera communities.

“The only losers in this election are the SUPP (Sarawak United People’s Party). The people have spoken and they want to reject the politics of money and elitism.

“They want a fair distribution of the state’s wealth, and an end to land disputes, an open tender system for contracts and more educational facilities for their children,” said Ho Leng.