Election time imminent!

Prologue: Still siput babi-ing. What's wrong with me? When will the mind-brew come out? Why I just can't find the mood to do anything? Where's my sense of urgency?

Dewan Undangan Negeri Sarawak / Sarawak State Assembly. Who shall reign the chamber this time? Photo courtesy of ChanPao who took this when the SISTAH came over for a trip in Kuching. I didn't blogged about it because it's all on Facebook anyway.

Exciting time ahead indeed for Sarawak! After much speculation and guesswork by all corners of the society, the 9th Sarawak State Assembly has been officially dissolved on 21 March 2011 (Monday) and the official date for the nomination and election day will be announced by SPR in due time with the coming election utilizing the electoral roster registered up to Dec 31 2010. For those uninitiated, unlike every other states in Malaysia, Sarawak State Election is usually held separately from General (Parliamentary) Election, one major reminder of Sarawak's unique position within the federation. Sarawak being the largest state in Malaysia in terms of land has the largest state legislature in Malaysia with 71 seats up for grab. While yours truly here are eligible to vote, there's one problem: I am in Penang now and I will be DEAD busy in April where the speculative date of election will most likely fall on besides I am running low in dough. Anyone wanna sponsor me flight tickets for me to fly back to my hometown? Pwetty Pwease *shiny eyes*.

If I am really going to vote, I will be voting at N12 Kota Sentosa, currently held by YB Chong Chieng Jen of DAP. But I am in Penang now as well as maybe tens of thousand more other Sarawakian on this side of the pond.

With the coming state election imminent, there are so many questions left to be answered. For the sake of convenience, I will based my discussion on two political line namely BN Sarawak (consists of PBB, SUPP, PRS and SPDP) and PR Sarawak (DAR, PKR, PAS and SNAP...).

Let's start of with BN Sarawak. The biggest question left to be answered right now is WHEN will Pehin Seri Taib Mahmud, the long time (how long? A full 30 years as CM and even longer time in politic!) Chief Minister of Sarawak and stalwart of BN Sarawak FINALLY retire. Many people believe and especially certain (with spurious rumours flying around recently mentioning CM Taib had fall out of favour with Putrajaya.) that this election will be his last and he did mention that he will step down eventually when he had his "succession plan" ready "when the time comes", another hot button issue for BN Sarawak. With all the allegation of nepotism and corruption aside (it's a well known fact that he did anyway.), one has to admit that CM Taib is one heck of a conniving fox (most likely a white one at that as per his nickname, Pek Moh 白毛 or Pak Uban.) for being able to be at the helm for so long by pacifying all the other rag-tag members of BN Sarawak, outsmarting all of his enemy in and out, out-rival all of the potential rival in his own party and even outmaneuvering his own uncle and long time mentor, Tun Rahman Ya'kub in the Ming Court Affair in the 80's. He's basically living the life of a godfather mafioso, complete with gold-gilded Rolls Royce (the only CM that's so because he dares), mansions and properties across the globe to support his high-flying family lifestyle as well as business interest across all business imaginable through his family shareholding. He's like almost invincible except maybe his eventual demise due to aging. With his tight grip on BN Sarawak, he can be considered as the only unifying element among disparate interest within the coalition of BN Sarawak and there's always be the fear that BN Sarawak might just collapse when CM Taib is gone from the picture and everybody that has been holding back will finally show their true colour with the worse case scenario being UMNO coming to Sarawak on the basis of creating "stability". (which I highly doubt and opposed of. Just look at Sabah. I would rather die than vote to UMNO. Heck, I will vote for PBB first before UMNO!) But before that happen, everything will remain uncertain hence it will be very interesting seeing what will unfold eventually after this coming state election. Besides Taib succession plan, there are a couple of issue worth paid attention of such as SUPP's George Chan own retirement plan and their continuous bad impression among urban Chinese voters (their traditional battleground are urban centers.) as being weak-kneed bowing to Taib's grip, not to mention PRS and Larry Sng conundrum.

As for PR Sarawak, their spirit remains high in pulling an even bigger upset than last time against BN Sarawak in this upcoming election (The internet community seems to be positive about this but one has to remember that the internet penetration rate remains low in Sarawak and confined to a largely urban audience only. They can rely of spread of word but then again...), but they're are not without their own problem especially with regards with allocation of seats to be contended among all the parties with PKR and SNAP currently at loggerhead. PKR's ambitious plan to field in almost all rural seats while leaving a couple of leftovers to SNAP has left SNAP fuming with anger, accusing PKR with delusion of grandeur despite the fact the only have one seat in the previous state assembly, Dominique Ng of Padungan, a Kuching urban seat which was won only because people hate SUPP and not because of PKR. Talking about Dominique Ng, he has this rather toxic relationship with DAP as well in which he will never see eye to eye with YB Chong (DAP) of Kota Sentosa and it will be interesting on how PKR's going to deal with DAP about Padungan and other potential PKR urban seat (which is not much considering DAP's traditional stronghold there against SUPP.). DAP themselves might have problem as well with YB Voon Lee Shan of Batu Lintang falling out with DAP Sarawak but remains very popular with his electorate. This might not go down well between DAP and YB Voon's supporter hence a very interesting development when PR finalized their list of candidate soon.

With the perks start flowing in and politicos starts pulling their gimmicks, election fever will rise in no times and it will be a very interesting time ahead for Sarawak and maybe Malaysia (in which the federal government regards the election as mid-term review of sort) regardless of the election outcomes. For everyone who has registered as a voter for this election and are able to vote (by being in Sarawak), vote wisely! Your vote will contribute to the eventual outcome of the election!


Epilogue: Another rare commentary post. Back to mundane life post next time. Ok not that mundance because there are a couple of memorable events happening in my life not too long ago. For those who can't wait for the erratic update in my blog, just head over to my Facebook profile to see all those photos and status updates. That's where I hang around these days anyway. I guess social media killed blogging somewhat. Last but not least, my research update: I am brewing. Still brewing. Finally started reading Karamitroglou's for more ideas. Isn't unbelievable that March will be over soon? CRAP.