All right folks, after a good night’s sleep, I presume, let’s share some thoughts on the implications of the results.
It’s going to be a lot harder for the BN to use vote-buying tactics to win voters’ support especially in urban areas in future by-elections. Sibu voters have taught the BN a bitter lesson.
Places of worship, religious institutions and independent schools should not accept grants from the government during election campaigns. This sets a good example for their followers and young minds and teaches them about the ethics of public life and electoral practices. Read Goh Keat Peng’s excellent piece ‘We don’t take such money‘. Mr Goh, a prominent Christian figure who attends a Methodist Church, gives us much food for thought: “I respectfully appeal to the churches directly involved in this episode (of accepting grants): If it isn’t true and it didn’t happen, then please say so. If it is true, offered and received, give it all back.”
The result is a wake up call for Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud and his family’s wide-ranging involvement in the state’s economy along with the cronies. Enough of the exploitation of people and natural resources.
The Sibu result is a psychological boost for the opposition and could yet have an impact on the state polls, though it is too early to say that the political tsunami in the peninsula has spread to Sarawak and Sabah.
What is certain is that Sarawakians in urban areas are now more exposed to independent views over the email and Internet, via mobile phones/SMS and through personal contacts elsewhere, and they are now more aware of critical national issues including larger issues of human dignity and justice.
More seats – how many it’s hard to say – are likely to fall to opposition hands in the coming state elections. But if Pakatan wants to make further headway in Sarawak, it will have to find a way to penetrate the interior areas and longhouses.
Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister George Chan says that among the key issues from the peninsula that swayed the election were the Allah controversy and the Malay Bible issue. But George, these issues will not go away – and they will have an impact on Sarawak Christians – unless they are fairly and satisfactorily resolved. They are always a convenient way of dismissing the other pressing issues in Sarawak including the excessive exploitation of natural resources, the loss of native customary land, and the general oppression faced by the people.
What do you think?
It’s going to be a lot harder for the BN to use vote-buying tactics to win voters’ support especially in urban areas in future by-elections. Sibu voters have taught the BN a bitter lesson.
Places of worship, religious institutions and independent schools should not accept grants from the government during election campaigns. This sets a good example for their followers and young minds and teaches them about the ethics of public life and electoral practices. Read Goh Keat Peng’s excellent piece ‘We don’t take such money‘. Mr Goh, a prominent Christian figure who attends a Methodist Church, gives us much food for thought: “I respectfully appeal to the churches directly involved in this episode (of accepting grants): If it isn’t true and it didn’t happen, then please say so. If it is true, offered and received, give it all back.”
The result is a wake up call for Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud and his family’s wide-ranging involvement in the state’s economy along with the cronies. Enough of the exploitation of people and natural resources.
The Sibu result is a psychological boost for the opposition and could yet have an impact on the state polls, though it is too early to say that the political tsunami in the peninsula has spread to Sarawak and Sabah.
What is certain is that Sarawakians in urban areas are now more exposed to independent views over the email and Internet, via mobile phones/SMS and through personal contacts elsewhere, and they are now more aware of critical national issues including larger issues of human dignity and justice.
More seats – how many it’s hard to say – are likely to fall to opposition hands in the coming state elections. But if Pakatan wants to make further headway in Sarawak, it will have to find a way to penetrate the interior areas and longhouses.
Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister George Chan says that among the key issues from the peninsula that swayed the election were the Allah controversy and the Malay Bible issue. But George, these issues will not go away – and they will have an impact on Sarawak Christians – unless they are fairly and satisfactorily resolved. They are always a convenient way of dismissing the other pressing issues in Sarawak including the excessive exploitation of natural resources, the loss of native customary land, and the general oppression faced by the people.
What do you think?
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