Pelbagai andaian yang telah dibuat tentang keadaan politik di negara kita sekarang ini. Barisan Nasional (BN) yang diterajui UMNO kelihatannya berada dalam keadaan yang sangat sesak... Manakala Pakatan Rakyat yang diterajui Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) kelihatan semakin kukuh. Mana tidaknya, UMNO yang bertopengkan BN kelihatan terang-terangan cuba mengubah lanskap perjuangan yang terlalu "kemelayuan" sehinggakan ahli-ahli BN yang terdiri daripada pelbagai kaum sungguh berasa tersisih sehinggakan ada yang telah mengalihkan sokongan kepada PKR atau parti pembangkang yang lain yang mereka harapkan dapat membawa perjuangan yang lebih liberal. Tidak lama lagi tiga pilihan raya kecil akan berlangsung. Pada pandangan saya PKR akan menang di dua bukit dan satu batang ini - Bukit Gantang, Bukit Selambau dan Batang Ai.

Selagi UMNO-BN masih leka dan terus bermain dengan isu-isu yang membuat rakyat berpaling darinya, nescaya pada pilihanraya besar yang akan datang merupakan pilihanraya yang akan menguburkan nama UMNO-BN. UMNO terutamanya tidak boleh terlalu menyentuh isu-isu yang berkaitan dengan agama masyarakat Malaysia yang lain, kontrak sosial dan isu-isu yang boleh menyentuh sensitiviti kaum lain.


Keadaan kita di Sarawak pula kelihatannya tidak diambil berat. Baru-baru ini negeri Sarawak dilanda banjir. Pada masa yang sama Palestine diserang oleh Israel. Apa yang dapat kita lihat ialah banyak tabung-tabung amal telah ditubuhkan kepada Palestine berbanding tabung amal untuk Sarawak. Malah diadakan sidang parlimen khas untuk membahaskan keadaan Palestine-Israel. Di sinilah kita boleh melihat secara rasionalnya yang mana mengundang tanda tanya adakah kerajaan persekutuan betul betul prihatin terhadap masalah rakyat sendiri atau rakyat luar? Ataupun kerajaan kita ini hanya mahu dilihat sebagai hero oleh segelintir masyarakat dunia manakala dilihat sebagai sebuah kerajaan yang tak prihatin oleh rakyat sendiri? Ingat bahawa kerajaan hari ini diangkat oleh rakyat negara ini dan bukannya rakyat palestine atau rakyat negara lain. Memang kita tidak boleh mengabaikan tanggungjawab kita sebagai sebahagian daripada komuniti dunia dan adalah kewajipan kita adalah menolong mereka yang teraniaya dengan kemampuan yang berpatutan. Tetapi kita tidak patut mengabaikan tanggungjawab kita kepada negara kita sendiri.

Dengan terlantiknya Perdana Menteri yang baru kita berharap kerjaan yang sedia ada akan berubah menjadi lebih prihatin terhadap masalah dan rintihan rakyat.

Berbalik kepada pilihanraya kecil di Barang Ai, isu-isu seperti isu tanah, isu jalanraya, isu kemudahan asas seperti sekolah, klinik, dan sebagainya akan tetap memainkan peranan dalam menentukan pihak manakah yang akan menang. Selama perpuluh tahun BN memegang kawasan berkenaan sejak era PBDS sehinggalah era PRS sekarang, masih terlalu banyak yang perlu diperbaiki. Seperti tahun-tahun sebelumnya, pelbagai projek akan dijanjikan oleh calon-calon bertanding. Kelebihan sudah tentu kepada calon PKR kerana sebelum itu mereka tidak menjanjikan apa-apa kerana inilah pertama kali mereka meletakkan calonnya bertanding di Sarawak. Lain pula ceritanya bagi pihak calon BN. Mungkin berbagai janji telah ditabur sebelum pilihanraya yang lepas dan sampai sekarang habuk pun tak nampak berkenaan dengan janji-janji tersebut. Ini akan menyukarkan lagi calon BN untuk menang.


Tidak ada salahnya kalau PKR menang di sini. Mungkin dengan bertapaknya PKR di Sarawak, ianya akan memberi ancaman kepada BN terutamanya kroni-kroni Taib Mahmud supaya dapat bekerja dengan lebih kuat dan menolong rakyat yang mengangkat mereka dan bukannya menolong kompeni-kompeni besar yang telah kaya. Kalau calon-calon BN yang dah tua dan lama tu sedar dan tahu malu, tolonglah berundur dan berilah peluang kepada anak-anak muda yang lebih pintar dan cerdas serta kuat. Wakil rakyat ini telah berada di sana terlalu lama seperti Taib Mahmud dan geng-gengnya yang lain kelihatannya ketandusan idea untuk membangunkan negeri Sarawak ini. Mereka terlalu bangga dengan pencapaian Sarawak yang kononnya telah memasuki gelombang kedua pembangunan. Setahu saya gelombang pertama pun belum boleh dilihat
hasilnya. Malah banyak perkara asas yang sangat penting bagi rakyat seperti jalan raya, bekalan elektrik, bekalan air bersih, sekolah, dan klinik tidak dapat dinikmati. Malah dengar cerita ada kampung-kampung yang terletak jauh terperuk dipendalaman tidak ada langsung kemudahkan asas ini.


PKR bercakap tentang perubahan dan BN juga ada bercakap tentang perubahan. Tetapi yang jelas sekarang rakyat mahu BN itu berubah daripada barisan kepimpinan terutamanya Taib Mahmud itu perlu berundur. Biarlah dia berundur dengan cara terhormat seperti yang Abdullah Ahmad Badawi buat. Berilah peluang kepada seorang pemimpin yang boleh memenuhi citarasa rakyat keseluruhannya. Sekiranya BN Sarawak masih diterajui oleh Taib Mahmud, nescaya BN sarawak akan diubah oleh PKR dengan cara yang paling “hina”. Masih belum terlambat untuk BN berubah sebelum diubah oleh rakyat. Walaupun akan kalah dalam pilihan raya di dua bukit dan satu batang ini, masih ada masa untuk memenangi pilihanraya yang akan datang sekiranya ada perubahan berlaku.

Betul........
"kadang perlu kita menoleh & beranjak ke belakang utk menentukan haluan yg betul" jgn asyik pg depan je walaupun dah tau tak mampu...
cth terbaik.. 12 dams kat sarawak??/
sedangkan BAKUN... dah terkial2... cam ne nak buat 12 dams lagi???

GALi #$$$$

ni la akibatnya bila dia memerintah terlalu lama...cuma masa pilihanraya je nampak batang hidung dia..naik heli g ke kawasan pilihan raya..mmg gaya dia cukup2 kaya..bila dah lama sgt memerintah..benda yg dia pinggirkan berpuluh tahun..akan terus terpinggir..so..mangsanya generasi baru la..terpinggir dlm kemajuan ekonomi n pendidikkan..bangsa dia terus menjadi no.1 di sarawak..kekayaan dia keluarga dia n kroni2 dia melampau2..

hehhehehe..
betul tu...
kkroni2 dia memang kaya raya...


Let’s read into the voters’ messages

By Churchill Edward

The
Batang Ai by-election was a huge victory for the Barisan Nasional (BN),
but while it is easy to get caught up in the euphoria of the increase
majority, what is the electorate trying to say with their votes?

Some political observers say the by-election was
symbolic as it was a BN testing ground for Iban loyalty. PKR, on the
other hand, used it to gauge their strength and popularity in the rural
areas prior to the big battle come the next state election.

“PKR should also be realistic and not to
immediately interpret their votes as an indication of their popularity
but rather protest votes against the mighty BN,” said one political
pundit.

Observers said there are indeed disgruntled voters
and disappointed people in LA if one cares to analyze past election
results, be they parliamentary or state polls. There also exist votes
linked to families and kinship.

Based on the grouses on the ground gathered in the
last few days of campaigning, indications are that the constituents
want to have tar-sealed roads leading to their longhouses and plots of
land for their farming activities.

Those re-settled, following the construction of
the Batang Ai hydro-power dam, said they are landless while those who
participate in Salcra oil palm plantation scheme said what land they
used to work on have all been planted with oil palms.

Other grouses relate to public amenities that are
either lacking or just non-existent - a bank to serve the business
community and ASB/ASN investors, government departments like local
council office, the National Registration Department and better health
facilities. Batang Ai people either go to Engkilili (60km away) or Sri
Aman (80km away) to get what they cannot find near home.

Protest votes might have wanted to relay a strong
message to the central government that its future BN incumbent should
have more say and power rather than becoming a ‘political puppet’ for
their ‘political masters’, depriving the incumbent the chance to show
his real ability and potential.

During the last days of campaign, the ruling
coalition took pains to explain that further development in LA is on
the way and that constituents must be patient. BN said its biggest
challenge when implementing projects is the harsh geography; not so
much the lack of funds.

The BN top guns came down in hordes trying to explain the government’s policies and its politics of development.

They also replied to the requests, saying all
roads in LA will be tar-sealed although setting up a bank will have to
take so many economic factors into consideration.

Setting up a bank is an economic decision; not political one, the BN said.

Both BN and PKR, or the opposition alliance, displayed some interesting strategies even though most were outdated.

PKR appeared to have rented most of the boats in
LA for transportation, and houses for lodging. Their campaigners were
said to have done this even while the former Batang Ai incumbent, the
late Datuk Dublin Unting Ingkot, was still lying in coma.

On nomination day, PKR appeared to have deployed
one very notable tactical strategy – getting blogger Johnny Chuat to
come to the nomination centre with his papers only to withdraw in the
eleventh hour. A straight fight looked to favour PKR.

The BN claimed that Johnny was a PKR man all along
and was there to make sure that BN would not win unopposed on the
morning of March 29. He was there just in case Jawah, for some
technical reasons, was disqualified.

Johnny’s subsequently declaration of support for
PKR, therefore, did not look surprising after all when he arrived at
the nomination centre a PKR flag was seen peeing out of his shirt
pocket!

Also on the morning of nomination day, the police
watching over party supporters seized several PAS flags when these
flags seemed to have started off some fierce exchanges of words among
rival supporters.

Why PAS flags when the party was not contesting?
Just to provoke? Or why felt provoked by flags? Whose strategy and for
what? To fire up emotions and sentiments?

Police acted to diffuse the tension and later returned the flags to PKR, when rivals supporters were sufficiently cooled down.

In a press conference later on, the police issued
a warning that only flags, symbols and posters of participating parties
could be displayed during the campaign period from March 29 to April 6.

From the PAS flags ‘fiasco’, the BN claimed that PKR had brought a culture alien to the locals and Sarawakians in general.

The BN was not short of interesting tactics
either. One was the use of cartoon caricatures that poked fun at PKR
candidate Jawah Gerang and his sponsors - distributed when Chief
Minister Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud officiated at an earth-breaking
ceremony for the construction of a Giat Mara centre in LA.

One giant poster was put up at the junction to
Batang Ai Resort declared Jawah a turn-coat or opportunist after having
failed to get nominated by the BN in the last parliamentary election.

In 2006, he was replaced by PRS supreme council
member William Nyallau Badak, the present LA MP. Out of frustration,
the former five-time LA MP quit PRS, joined PKR and contested.

The BN also used the time-proven stragtegy of
re-telling the cross-over by several opposition members or leaders to
the BN. Among them were Julau PKR committee leaders and local Tuai
Rumah or community leaders who supported Jawah before their timely
defection.

Another BN strategy was to dangle carrots –
projects that the opposition labelled as “Instant Noodle”, which the BN
countered by saying that these so-called instant food was manufactured
long time ago and that giving them to the people was a matter of timing
based on availability of funds.

BN trumpeted continuity of development which would
not be possible if the opposition won because the opposition only their
salaries to show whereas a BN assemblyman enjoys an association with
the top leaders of the government of the day.

Sound and logical indeed, but PKR hit back saying BN was propagating ‘politics of fear’.

Batang Ai major players in the PKR champ included
its national leaders Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Selangor Menteri
Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim.

On the BN side were Taib and Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

The BN said Anwar was merely waging a
psychological war when he claimed that PKR could win in Batang Ai. The
BN said Batang Ai would be a non-event just like Anwar’s Sept 16, which
he said would be the date when BN MPs would cross over to PR top help
him form a new government.

The BN was right on both occasions as the two declarations were non-events in the end.

Anwar’s consolation is that his PR gets to retain Bukit Gantang and Bukit Selambau.