KUCHING (May 4): When referring to the general election in Sarawak, the issue of Chinese support cannot be ignored as currently the opposition party DAP, which is predominantly Chinese held five of the 31 parliamentary seats while another opposition seat belongs to PKR.

The onus is now on the Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP), the Barisan Nasional (BN) component party who was defeated in all the six seats contested in the last general polls to wrest back these seats by cooperating with its splinter party, United People’s Party (UPP).  

Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) Language and Communications Faculty senior lecturer Dr Jeniri Amir said even though SUPP faced a tough challenge in the 14th General Election (GE14), especially from the perspective of Chinese unity, there was still some hope following the signing of an understanding last month between SUPP and UPP.

“They have to show good example because to gain the voters’ support especially in urban areas, there should be unity. So by fielding Datuk Andrew Wong Kee Yew as the BN candidate for Sibu, it is seen as good move to convince the Chinese community about unity among the races in BN,” he said.

New face Andrew Wong is the son of Sarawak International Trade and E-Commerce Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wong Soon Koh, the party leader who quit SUPP in 2014 and formed UPP but contested in the 2016 Sarawak state election as a ‘partyless’ candidate, a prerequisite to contest under the BN ticket.

“In terms of relationship between the two parties, it gives a good impression to the Chinese community, but it does not guarantee that they will win easily in the Lanang and Sibu parliamentary seats in Sarawak’s central region as the DAP is formidable there,” he said.

He said SUPP’s strategy to field assemblymen from three state seats in Miri, Sarikei and Stampin was appropriate as these three candidates were already well-known at the grassroots level in these three parliamentary constituencies.

Asean E University academic facilitator Mohd Ikhwan Bujang said at present there are two groups among the Chinese community in Sarawak – the veterans aged 45 and above who generally support the government and the youth, who are open minded and flexible in evaluating the most suitable candidates to lead the government based on the current conditions.

“Previously what the government contributed might have been less obvious, but when the state leadership was taken over by the late Tan Sri Adenan Satem, the Chinese community began to show interest and support for these struggles as they saw their rights were also being given attention by the leaders,” he said.  

He said, in reality, the Sarawak Chinese are very supportive of each other and it could be clearly seen in the field of economy and business and they chose the government based on the credibility of the leaders.

Meanwhile Dr Nadrawina Isnin said the BN began to gain support from the Chinese in the state when the  community’s rights were given due attention such as provisions for Chinese schools and recognising the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) as a requirement to enter university.

The Universiti  Teknologi Mara (UITM) Samarahan Administrative Sciences and Policy Studies Faculty lecturer said the support of the Chinese community has now shifted to the BN from DAP and the evidence could be seen through the result of the previous state polls, which saw the DAP lost five seats.

She was confident the GE14 in Sarawak would be held smoothly and peacefully because the state was well-known for its unity concept which is recognised internationally and could be seen in the daily lives of its multi racial people.