Sarawak YB for Batang Sadong was so incensed when reported in cetain papers for ‘claiming that Sarawakians still want Najib’ as the Prime Minister’.
It occurred to me that something was amiss when it sounded so controversial and was portrayed differently in different media. After reading various versions of it, I note this actually started with a controversial headline to that effect, carried in the The Sun and The Borneo Post. Two other papers, Malaymail online and Free Malaysia Today, however, avoided using the controversial headline.
Subsequently, I contacted the YB herself for clarification, and she sent me the video of the controversial presentation. It was an impassioned and quite a lengthy deliberation in a forum focused on Sarawak Rights, an issue that had been sidelined by the Federal Government for such a long time. It was a plea, apparently to Malayan audience, to understand the current struggle to regain those rights.
She further dwelled on Najib and how Sarawakians deeply appreciated his genuine understanding and sincerity to help Sarawak. After all, Najib made more than 60 visits to Sarawak during his nine years in office, a feat far exceeding those of any other Prime Minister. Only a Sarawakian Prime Minister, if ever, can exceed this record!
She further reminded that Najib brought more development projects to Sarawak, which includes the Pan Borneo Highway and big bridges.
She, however, said in one line that Sarawakians who genuinely believed in Politics of Development still want Najib to be there. This was the controversial statement that was interpreted by certain newspapers as claiming that majority Sarawakians still accept Najib as Prime Minister.
Readers, kindly note the term ‘Politics of Development’ used in the above sentence. Non Sarawakians may be forgiven for not knowing the significance of the phrase since it does not sound catchy. But, for most Sarawakians, they have been raised and inculcated with this political concept right from the time when the Tun Taib Mahmud became Chief Minister almost forty years ago.
Politics of development was actually meant to focus attention of Sarawak people primarily to the need for development. Any form of politics must be development oriented rather than politics of racial and religious divide, politics of hatred, and ones filled with gossips, prevalent nowadays, intended to kill political careers of leading figures.
Hence, Najib’s popularity could be best understood in Sarawak in term of his strong commitment to Sarawak’s politics of Development.
Upon my request for comment, YB Nancy, however, denied those controversial claims made by the newspapers concerned. After reviewing the video, I believe she is right; nowhere in the video she ever mentioned that Sarawakians still want Najib to be PM. In fact, what she meant was that many Sarawakians will still welcome Najib not as Prime Minister, but to come just as he was welcome in other states.
I do not see any problem with that statement since she was referring to a current phenomenon of Najib’s revived popularity as Bossku, especially among young Malays in the Peninsular. If young Malays who rejected him there in the last General Election willingly reaccept him, there is no reason for majority Sarawakian Bumiputeras to dislike him now. After all, BN under Najib won majority votes in Sarawak in the last General Election.
Sarawakians appreciate and are thankful to the person who have done a lot of good for them. Hence, they appreciated Najib and Barisan Nasional, and gave Barisan Nasional majority votes in the last General Election with very strong support from the rural areas. In this contact, YB Nancy was right to say that all those who genuinely believe in politics of development still want Najib to be there. She spoke on her own behalf and did not represent her party.
Sarawkians are friendly, tolerant and are a thankful lot; hence Barisan Nasional won here in GE 14. I am one of those keen and dedicated political analysts in the country, making use of statistical analysis to uncover voting trend of groups of voters since the last few general elections. I often came out earliest making use of adaptation from econometric models that I learned in universities in my younger days.
A glance through Suara Sarawak yesterday, I note that virtually all youngsters interviewed still expressed appreciation for Najib’s contribution to Sarawak.
Of course, Sarawakians know that Najib has lost the last General Election, and the national and international corruption scandal weight down on him heavily. Barisan is no longer the government at both the Federal and State levels, now replaced with GPS with focus to exert more autonomy from Putrajaya.
While the previous BN State government have fought for Politics of Development with some success in the state, Sarawak have done too much to contribute to development of the nation. Time is now ripe to fight for ourselves. Let’s move on, let us all Sarawakians fight for autonomy and let’s fight for Sarawak First.
UTAMAKAN SARAWAK – SARAWAK FIRST
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DAH IKHWAN
