Stunning victory for Adenan

Long line: People queuing up to cast their votes for the N75 Senadin seat at SK Agama Miri. — Bernama

The Sarawak Chief Minister’s triumph in his maiden state election tasted extra sweet when the Chinese votes came along with him.

THE lovely blue skies throughout the day were the perfect backdrop for Tan Sri Adenan Satem’s sweeping victory. The seats fell steadily for Sarawak’s singing Chief Minister and it was clear that he was headed for a dream victory of 72 out of 82 seats.

The magical moment came shortly after 10pm when he secured his two-thirds majority.

The straight-talking, poker-faced Chief Minister had rolled back the political tsunami that hit Sarawak in the 2011 state election.

The man himself arrived at the old state assembly complex just as the Election Commission officially announced that he had secured a simple majority. He headed up to the second floor where party members and workers were gathered.

It would be a good night for them.

There were cheers and applause each time RTM announced a win for Barisan Nasional.

Adenan’s support from the rural and semi-rural seats was never in question. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak felt it when he campaigned in the rural hinterland.

The icing on the cake for Adenan was when five of the 12 seats that fell to DAP in the last state election returned to Barisan.

Adenan came out in a big way for SUPP president Dr Sim Kui Hian during the campaign, urging the Chinese to support the Batu Kawah candidate if they wanted to have a say in the government.

Though he was the underdog, Dr Sim won against DAP’s Christina Chiew, who was the incumbent, and a third candidate, an independent backed by timber money.

The night before polling, Chiew and her husband appeared at a packed DAP ceramah, where the audience was told she had suffered a miscarriage.

It was one of those moments of mixed feelings. Many people’s hearts went out to her. At the same time, publicising such a private experience had an exploitative tinge to it. The opinion that night was that Dr Sim was finished but it was not to be.

Dr Sim’s victory, in that sense, best epitomises the Chinese swing back to Barisan.

The cardiologist is also a gentleman because when asked about Chiew’s situation the next morning, he said he was saddened to hear about her because “life is more important than politics”.

Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin tweeted early in the evening: “Hearing good news from Batu Kawah. Bellwether seat.”

Everyone had struggled to read the quiet Chinese ground throughout the campaign. As things turned out, the Chinese silence favoured the ruling coalition.

SUPP, which was almost wiped out in 2011, made an amazing revival riding on the “Adenan fever”.

It was not a good night for DAP. Its attempt to make inroads into the rural seats did not go well but it managed to win a new seat in Tanjung Batu, a Chinese majority seat in the Bintulu area.

DAP was also handicapped by the ban on some of its leaders from the peninsula.

Its “frenemy” PKR fared better as it held on to its three seats.

PAS and Amanah ended up with zero seats although PAS did better than Amanah in terms of votes.

Adenan went into the polls with a super high approval rating of more than 80%. An under-siege DAP had labelled him a new broom that sweeps clean but he was like a breath of fresh air after more than 30 years of Tun Taib Mahmud, who is now Sarawak Governor.

Adenan came promising reforms and shifted the focus from the previous chief minister to himself and his agenda for change.

He acted on issues that had accumulated over the years and which people had been complaining about, from illegal logging to making Sarawak a toll-free state.

He successfully shifted the focus to himself, away from the issues that had hung over his predecessor.

He captured the hearts and minds of voters when he came out strongly for state autonomy and to demand a bigger say for Sarawakians in the affairs of their own state.

The election outcome, said political analyst Khaw Veon Szu, is a classic case of politics tending to be about local and direct interests.

Sarawakians voted for what they thought was best for them.

“It was about Sarawak and not Putrajaya, Adenan rather than Najib,” said Khaw.

But the win has been as important for Adenan as it is for Najib. It sends a strong message that Barisan is here to stay.

Adenan is admired by many over in the peninsula. In giving him such a strong mandate, Sarawakians have shown that they want Adenan to continue making their state a beacon of moderation.