Rights, idealism and even spiritual principles take a back seat when facing abject poverty, says Sarawak PKR in explaining its loss of 14 seats in the GE.
Sarawak which is predominantly Christian has more than 40 sub-ethnic groups.
Referring to the party’s dismal performance in 14 of the 15 rural seats it contested, Bian said it was illogical that the time and effort put into educating the natives had been negated overnight by money politics.
“I find it hard to believe and accept this outcome because we had prepared the ground for about a year or so before the election.
“In the past, we were never as focused on seats or areas, and issues.
“What happened to all our attempts through Radio Free Sarawak, longhouse visits, ceramahs, workshops on their land rights issues, to educate them on all these dirty tricks used by the other side; on money politics, threat to longhouse chiefs, deprivation of basic amenities, no scholarship and withdrawal of welfare and subsidies?
“It is obvious that money politics is the reason why we failed.
“I am very convinced now that the abject poverty of our natives’ folks placed them in a very vulnerable situation allowing money politics to remain supreme in GE.
“Rights, idealism and even spiritual principles take a back seat,” he said.
According to Bian, PKR candidates had reported that voters were allegedly being paid between RM20 and RM500 each depending on their strength of support.
“This is not surprising as it has been the norm every GE. But we hoped it would be different this time and we had repeatedly explained and emphasized the fact that this is not right and that it is not BN money.
“But this approach has obviously failed us in the last minute,” he said.
Only solution left
Bearing this in mind, Bian said the “one solution” now was to enlist the church’s direct support in aiding the “spiritual inward renewal and economic empowerment” of the rural native communities.
“The church must help to bring in a very strong teaching in this area of political responsibility and awareness, ” he said.
In last Sunday’s parliamentary polls, PKR wrested the urban Miri seat through Dr Michael Teo but failed in its attempts in 14 other seats.
Teo wrested the seat from BN’s Sarawak United Peoples Party (SUPP) by 1,992 vote majority.
Bian, who is Ba Kelalan assemblyman, contested in Limbang and lost his bid by 8,000 votes.
The majority left him in shock as did PKR’s failure to win two other surefire seats – Baram and Saratok.
Said Bian: “I am still trying to absorb the shocking outcome not only of Limbang but all the rural seats where PKR stood and lost.
“I would have thought Baram and Saratok could have been won, at the very least.
“We had a political consultant that sat monthly with us to review our progress and preparation. It seemed like all was going well from our perspective. Yet we did not win a single seat in the rural areas of Sarawak.
“But we have made good inroads and will now prepare for the state elections which will be held in 2016 or maybe sooner,” he said.
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