KUCHING, 17 APRIL, 2011: With the Sarawak United Peoples' Party (SUPP) now ranking fourth in the state Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition following its disastrous performance in yesterday's state polls, the Chinese community is facing a dilemma.
Previously the state BN's second largest component party, it suffered the highest casualty when it lost 13 out of 19 seats contested, including in Piasau, which saw its president and deputy chief minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan defeated by newcomer Ling Sie Kiong of the DAP.
A political analyst, Dr Jeniri Amir, said today the Chinese would be facing a Catch 22 situation because the community was going to carry less political weight due to a lack of representation in the state cabinet.
"This is the reality. They (Chinese) have to accept the far-reaching implication because they have made their decision which will cause them to be further alienated," he told Bernama here.
On the other hand, he said, the Bumiputera community, including the Bidayuh would protest if they did not get any representation in the government for helping to win seats for SUPP.
SUPP barely retained its mostly mixed Chinese-Bumiputera seats of Bawang Assan, Opar, Bengoh, Senadin, Simanggang and Engkili but lost 12 urban Chinese-majoirty seats to DAP and another three to Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR).
Dr Jeniri, who is also Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) social sciences faculty senior lecturer said the ruling coalition would have to take care of the sentiments of the bumiputeras in the party, who wanted to see their own leaders appointed in the cabinet.
Unlike the appointment of defeated candidates as senators in the federal cabinet, he said it had never been a practice in Sarawak to enable those who lost in the state election to remain or appointed as ministers.
So far the most senior SUPP elected representative is party deputy secretary-general Datuk Seri Wong Soon Koh, the Second Finance Minister cum Environment and Public Health Minister, who retained his Bawang Assan seat.
Yesterday's 10th state election saw SUPP's seats further reduced from the 11 seats won in the May 2006 state election.- Malayasian Digest
No comments:
Post a Comment