Sarawak Election: Arrogance was the cause that tilted the scale

There was of course a combination of various factors that caused the loss of SUPP to the DAP in the election last Saturday. The land lease, the premium for land lease renewal, the petroleum price hike, the undelivered promises and etc.

However, the main factor that tilted the scale in favour of the DAP was the sheer arrogance of the Barisan Nasional, expecially the SUPP.

The issues were expected long before the dissolution of the state assembly. No genius was required to tell the ruling coaliation that those were the issues the opposition would zoom in.

However, the ruling coalition chose to brush them aside believing that the development card would still be the best weapon to deflect the issues that really close the the people's heart. They buried their heads in the sand and paid a high price.

If the component parties in the BN had been honest to themselves and had addressed those "nothing-new" issues in a humble manner, they might have saved a few more seats.

The SUPP had resorted to cool approach in the election campaign by putting up relatively less posters in all the major cities than they did in the past elections. In Sibu, except for some small billboards, the candidates did not even put up a single poster. Limited leaflets of outdated designs were distributed to the voters without any concerted effort to address the major issues raised by the opposition. Probably, they were unable to address those issues with plausible arguments.

In short, no serious attempt was put up to counter the attack from the opposition. The SUPP took for granted that the people in Sarawak would have to support the party as it was still regarded as the indispensable component partner in the Barisan Nasional representing the Chinese community. It had just learnt the lesson that it was no longer so.

The people is the master that decides.