Sarawak DAP is bent on retaining all six seats won by the party in the 14th general election (GE-14) in 2018.
Its chairman Chong Chieng Jen has even added a list of surprises as they want to seize the Bintulu and Serian Parliament seats.
Hence, the party invited its Secretary General, Anthony Loke to announce the list of candidates that will be featured in this GE.
Loke announced the party’s four candidates for the southern region of Sarawak – Bandar Kuching, Stampin, Mas Gading and Serian.
During a visit to Sibu on Saturday, Chieng Jen who was accompanied by DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang, announced that two of the party’s incumbents, Oscar Ling (Sibu) and Alice Lau (Lanang) will defend their respective seats.
This is interesting because the two seats are now seen as grey areas for the DAP.
Under the Sibu Parliamentary constituency, Nangka state seat (DUN) was won by PBB while Pelawan was won by SUPP. And Bawang Assan DUN is controlled by PSB.
This dominance outside DAP, especially in the Pelawan area, which was previously DAP’s stronghold, could pose a challenge to Oscar’s performance and ability to retain the seat in GE15, which he won in the previous two general elections.
In Lanang, Alice who managed to defend her seat in 2018 with a majority of 14,546 votes must be having sleepless nights. Both DUN seats within the parliamentary constituency are dominated by the component parties of Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS).
In the 12th state election (PRN12), the Bukit Assek constituency was won by Chieng Jin Ek (SUPP) while the Dudong constituency was dominated by the ‘political giant’ Tiong King Sing (PDP).
Although Tiong may be busy defending his parliamentary seat in Bintulu, it does not mean that Alice can be complacent. Surely SUPP is devising a powerful weapon to suppress her influence, and if the PRN decision is taken into account, Alice’s seat is in danger.
The father of national athlete, Jackie Wong emerged as the winner of the Sarikei Parliamentary seat in 2018. Wong Ling Biu successfully defended the seat after he polled 16,327 votes to defeat Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Huang Tiong Sii who obtained 13,757 votes, while Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) candidate Wong Chin King obtained 392 votes.
This time around, his special assistant, Roderick Wong Siew Lead has been appointed as a replacement candidate. It was due to Li Biu’s health condition that prevented him from contesting, including being ‘commatose’ after being tested positive for COVID-19.
It has become a tradition for DAP to nominate young candidates, with Roderick only 32 years old, and holder of a Master of Business Administration from UNIMAS. In the Bandar Kuching Parliament seat, former doctoral student in Russia, Dr Kelvin Yii Lee Wuen is almost certain to retain the seat.
This National Dapsy leader is actually the most popular candidate in the party, and is described as one of its future leaders.
Dr Yii who won with a big majority of 35,973 votes to defeat the SUPP Women chief, Kho Teck Wan in 2018 is not expected to face any problems.
The challenge may be from SUPP-GPS, who has nominated Kuching Branch Youth leader, Eric Tay Tze Kok as their candidate.
To strengthen his standing, Dr Yii has presented his report card as a member of parliament to the people of Bandar Kuching.
Through his facebook, he explained the expenses he has spent over the past four years amounting to almost RM10 million – which was expended for the purposes of youth, education, community, welfare and health programmes. He left it to the people to judge through the 26-page report, something rarely done by any opposition in Sarawak.
Therefore, to challenge Dr Yii, Eric Tay needs to be more creative and brave, and not repeat the mistakes that happened in the Padungan and Pending DUNs during the last PRN, which were full of sabotage and prejudice.
Despite winning with a large majority – 14,221 votes in the GE14, the Stampin Parliament is no longer a beautiful home for the Sarawak DAP chairman, who is also the Sarawak PH chairman, Chong Chieng Jen.
This time, the challenge that will be faced by the Padungan assemblyman is not easy. Similar to Sibu Parliamentary constituency, the three state seats under Padungan are under GPS, with SUPP president Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hian in Batu Kawa; Wilfred Yap Yau Sin in Kota Sentosa and Lo Khere Chiang in Batu Kitang.
Lo is rumored to stand against Chieng Jen, and if this happens, he will be in trouble in areas that have Bumiputera votes.
During the last state election, Kota Sentosa voters were said to have ‘rejected him face to face’ because they were angry with the disappointing administration issues during the 22 months Pakatan Harapan was in power.
The real issue is serving the people. Chieng Jen during his time in the Parliament, failed to carry out his role; and he is wrong if he thinks that the residents of Stampin are the same as the residents of Bandar Kuching – which was his safe seat before.
If last week, Chieng Jen defined the basic conditions as a DAP candidate as ‘need to serve the people not only during the election period but before the election’, isn’t this condition like spitting to the sky for him? Even so, no one can deny that Chieng Jen’s characters are actually important in Parliament and in the DAP organisation itself, because he cleverly attacks and alludes to the checks and balances.
However, to win a seat in the Parliament does not come for free because it needs ‘people’s power’. And this should be bought with trust and service.
There is not much to say about Mordi Bimol who won the Mas Gading seat in 2018 with a margin of 3,024 votes. He defeated incumbent Datuk Anthony Nogeh Gumbek (BN-PDP) who was then deputy minister. The result was actually expected, because Nogeh at that time failed to address the discontent of the people and lost his stamina during the campaign.
Mordi is said to be facing a challenge from the young PDP candidate, Lidang Disan. Surely this is not a beautiful dream for Mordi because for the past four years, he has been silent from the people — due to health reasons, COVID-19, and many others. Therefore, honestly, he is seen as a failure in providing the best service to the people. Even so, DAP actually has no choice because Mordi is the only candidate of the party who managed to ‘split the immunity’ of the Bidayuh seat before.
However, Mordi needs to work hard and persevere, if he wants to retain the seat, similar to his other colleagues, he will need to face fierce opposition from all corners.
In the Bintulu constituency, DAP named Chiew Chan Yew as its new face candidate, while in Serian, the party is fielding former DUN Kedup candidate, Larry Jabul.
Chieng Jen is optimistic that DAP can win these two seats, but he needs to realise that it will not be easy to topple the fortress that has been built long and powerful by political giants such as Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing and Datuk Seri Richard Riot Jaem.
Maybe the candidates they appointed are still young, and will clash with the candidates of the ‘golden’ generation, but in politics, service and influence are everything.
And today’s new voters are not easily swayed by mere rhetoric and social media commentary. DAP may be able to win one or two seats, but to win eight seats, is an uncertain dream.
Or they will return to face another nightmare such as during the last state election, even though they have put on golden armour and a new strategy this time around.
