Sarawak BN will let Teras, SPDP and SUPP duke it out at next state elections, says political scientist

KUCHING: Sarawak Barisan Nasional leaders will let Teras, SPDP and SUPP “fight it out” at the next state elections, claims a Universiti Malaysia Sarawak political scientist.

“It’s likely the incumbents from Teras will be up against candidates from SUPP and SPDP in the disputed seats. The loser will be marginalized and left out of Barisan eventually,” said Dr Faisal S Hazis, who heads the Political and International Affairs Department at the Social Sciences Faculty.

“This is nothing new. It’s happened before with SNAP and PBDS. This is where the chairman of Sarawak Barisan plays an important role. Before the moves are played out in public, there was already an arrangement,” he told The Star on Sunday.

Faisal called it “strongman politics”, where elites trump political ideologies.

“Sarawak has been under strongman rule for the last three or four decades. That has led to weak political institutions. Democracy is captured by the elites, and parties depend on their strongmen”.

Faisal believes PBB has benefited the most from decades of infighting among other Barisan component parties. Factionalism, he said, has strengthened the largest party.

The political scientist expects Teras to field candidates against SUPP in the majority of urban seats at the next Sarawak Elections.

“I think Teras will capitalise on urban voters’ general mistrust of SUPP. The new Chief Minister (Tan Sri Adenan Satem) has gained political mileage by helping out (DAP’s) Wong Ho Leng financially,” he said, referring to the cancer-stricken Bukit Assek assemblyman, who is also the former state Opposition leader.

(Wong incurred medical bills of about RM1.5mil receiving specialist care in Singapore. Adenan announced last Thursday the state Government would pay RM1mil of Wong’s overseas medical cost.)

In rural seats, Faisal said the Teras incumbents with state Government backing should have the upper hand.

“At the end of the day, whoever has the backing of the state Government machinery, with their development promises, will win,” he said.

Again, he said, strongman politics was most important and a lot would depend on Adenan’s leadership.

“Adenan is hijacking the Opposition’s agenda with all this talks of state autonomy, increasing oil royalties, among others. Next, Adenan could address native customary rights land issues, and then you must ask: What is the Opposition’s capital now? It calls into question the existence of the Opposition.

“For the Opposition, they’ll have to think about how to move on without relying on problems in Barisan to make gains. This Teras episode might not translate into much for them.”