SIBU BY-ELECTION CAMPAIGN STARTS

The by-election in Sibu will be very different from the one in Hulu Selangor. The issues that will likely dominate the campaigning period are the Allah issue, GST, NCR (Native Customary Rights) land, Islamisation in public institutions of higher learning which are affecting non-Muslims Bumiputeras, the nasty roads, flooding, Chinese education, university education, the dams, Limbang, the 4th poorest state status eventhough we are the richest state with oil, gas and timber. We know as people who were born and raised in Sibu that money and power play a gigantic role in deciding the results of the election. There are also reports of betting which can affect the results. You wish the by-election is held during the World Cup 2010 later so people will be too busy to bet on the by-election. Let's not forget about postal votes too.

Robert Lau Hui Yew
SUPP

Wong Ho Leng
DAP

I checked the possible routes to go back. There are no flights going Sibu from Johor Bahru on Saturday. I can go back via Kuching but will be on a very early flight. It will cost me at least RM400+ to fly back to give my vote.

Depart
AK 5842 Johor Bahru(JHB) to Kuching(KCH)
Sat 15 May 2010
Depart 0820 Arrive 0945
152.00 MYR1 Guest @ 152.00
9.00 MYR Airport Taxes and Fees

Depart
AK 5846 Johor Bahru(JHB) to Kuching(KCH)
Sat 15 May 2010
Depart 1805 Arrive 1925
132.00 MYR1 Guest @ 132.00
9.00 MYR Airport Taxes and Fees
-------------------------------------------------------------
Depart
AK 5514 Johor Bahru(JHB) to Sibu(SBW)
Fri 14 May 2010
Depart 1740 Arrive 1915
341.00 MYR1 Guest @ 341.00
9.00 MYR Airport Taxes and Fees

Return
AK 5515 Sibu(SBW) to Johor Bahru(JHB)
Sun 16 May 2010
Depart 1940 Arrive 2110
123.00 MYR1 Guest @ 123.00
9.00 MYR Airport Taxes and Fees


482.00 MYRTotal
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Can some rich man or company sponsor me home *give hints to the rich candidate*? Haha! I copied and pasted a part of an article in red from below. Well, the red words are the views of the BN candidate. How do you progress when such an issue can never be solved? How many wars fought and how much blood shed just for unsolved religious issues in this world throughout the history of mankind?

Religion is between you and God but if politics intervenes and determines your freedom of how this relationship is developed, we got a problem here. They are separate issues but if politics start to interfere on what your religion must and must not do, this is no longer something to be ignored. Currently it is politics which is creating problems to religion. It controls the approval of your publications, your land titles and even what can be imported in. It is funny that someone started it and later they claim the others politicizing it for bringing the issue up. Weird logic.

I already said this many times in the past. Religion and politics should never be related. History has shown that religion becomes corrupted and twisted once it has political power and mixed up with politics.

“Religion is personal relationship between yourself and God, let us not politicise that. I am a Christian, I believe in Jesus Christ as our saviour, I believe in the Trinity,” said Lau when asked if he is doing anything specific to win over the Christian votes.

“Politics deals with human, social issue not so much about divinity but at the end whatever we do whatever we try we must be thankful to God,” he added.

“We don’t politicise religion, this has not happened in Sibu. Religion is divinity, politics is humanity,” he said when met after a dinner with the SUPP election machinery.

About 53 per cent of the 55,000 voters in the Sibu constituency are Christians. The Chinese form about 66.6 per cent of the voters, the largely Christian Ibans 16.3 per cent and the Malay/Melanau 16.2 per cent.

The DAP has been using its church-going leaders to engage the Christian community in Sibu. It has had also held a closed-door dialogue with the group where issues such as the use of the word “Allah” to refer to God in Malay were brought up.

“Don’t stereotype the Christians, we don’t have that kind of culture in Sibu. I do not want to fall into that trap, let us move on, be more progressive, we are one big family,” said Lau when asked about his stand on the “Allah” row.

Saturday May 8, 2010
Hot battle for Sibu seat begins

SIBU: The battle for the Sibu parliamentary seat begins with candidates filing their nomination papers today.

Barisan Nasional candidate Robert Lau Hui Yew, popularly known as Robert Lau Junior, will hand in his papers at the Sibu Civic Centre.

Sarawak DAP chairman and Bukit Assek assemblyman Wong Ho Leng, 50, will most probably contest against Hui Yew, but it is unlikely that the by-election will be a straight fight as at least one ‘‘irritant’’ Independent candidate Narawi Haron is expected to join the fray.

The trio will be eyeing the predominantly Chinese urban seat following the death of Deputy Transport Minister and five-term Sibu MP Datuk Robert Lau Hoi Chew on April 9.

So far, five sets of nomination papers have been purchased from the Election Commission (EC) office, three of them by DAP representatives and one each by the Barisan and an independent candidate.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin will be leading members of BN component parties in a show of support for their candidate Hui Yew when he submits his nomination papers.

The nomination period is for one hour from 9am, and then there will be an objection period of an hour, after which the candidates will be announced. Polling is on May 16.

The Sarawak Meteorological Department has forecast fair weather, especially in the morning, which should auger well for a smooth nomination process.

The unprecedented influx of outsiders, such as party campaign workers, additional security reinforcement and media personnel, has also given the locals an economic boom judging from the full hotels and traffic congestion in this riverine town by the banks of the country’s longest river, the Batang Rajang.

Sarawak police commissioner Datuk Mohmad Salleh had said 2,000 police personnel were being deployed for the by-election to monitor security and ensure order.

In the 2008 general election, Hoi Chew retained the Sibu seat with a 3,549-vote majority, beating Ho Leng and Lim Chin Chuang of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) in a three-cornered fight.

Sibu has 54,695 voters, comprising 52,158 ordinary voters and 2,537 postal voters made up of 1,910 military and 627 police personnel.

According to the electoral roll, updated as of April 9, Chinese voters make up almost 67% of the total number, followed by Malay/Melanau (10.5%) and Sarawak bumiputras (22%).

Forty-five polling stations with 110 streams will be opened at 39 schools, two kindergartens, a training centre, a longhouse, a public library and a public recreational centre. — Bernama

The forces that shape Sibu
By Sheridan Mahavera
May 08, 2010

SIBU, May 8 — True story — a Sarawak Barisan Nasional MP warned a tuai rumah (longhouse headman) and penghulu (village head) in January to support the BN or resign as they are paid by the state government.

Another story. In a previous election, a different Sarawak politician reminded petty traders that even if he didn’t get their vote he would still be in charge of the municipal council. Read: the municipal council that renews their business licences.

In most parts of the Semenanjung, these strong-arm tactics would incense instead of scare. In fact, they usually backfire on the politician making the threat and they are rejected at the ballot box.

In Sarawak, it is still standard practice, according to the Sarawak DAP.

Unlike in the Semenanjung, where politicians come bearing money and infrastructure during an election, in Sarawak they hold a carrot and a parang at the same time.

But it’s not just the "hard AND soft" approach. Influence is also funnelled through kinship ties and clan associations especially if a community has a shared history like the Foochows of Sibu.

Also, though it may not be as obvious as in the case of Islam in the peninsula, the church forms attitudes and opinions which are translated through the ballot box.

In the upcoming by-election, these forces will once again come into play and both Pakatan Rakyat and the BN will try their utmost to make them work for them.

Yet, like all by-elections, the battle for Sibu is a competition of different value systems. Whether a voter chooses because one candidate has the same last name as his or because they want better jobs in Sibu, it reflects how they want their lives governed.

The Church

The Catholic Church, says Bishop Robert Hii, encourages its followers to get involved in politics.

“Politics is part of life. You must be engaged and involved. You must vote,” he says, though the church does not tell Christians who to vote for.

“We don’t want to divide our followers (along partisan lines) as they belong to both camps. But we preach about the importance of justice, human rights, equality, morality and the freedom to practice.”

Hii says about half of Sibu’s Christians are Catholics and they are the second largest denomination after the Methodists.

Due to the history of how Catholicism spread in Sarawak, the majority of Catholics are Iban.

Contrary to what some pundits expect and some politicians hope, Hii says the Allah issue would not likely be at the forefront of the minds of most Christians in Sibu.

“We still use Allah in all our services and prayers. It is not a problem. Also, we don’t have to beg the government for money to build churches. We get a lot of help from the government.”

Officials of the Methodist Church declined to comment but it is understood that many of its devotees are traditional BN supporters.

Be that as it may, the Sarawak DAP is banking on the support of its youth groups who the party thinks have been galled by how the BN has handled the Allah issue and the import of Bahasa Malaysia Christian texts.

“They won’t say it out loud because there’s a ban on talking about it... but they are angry,” claims Pakatan Rakyat’s candidate Wong Ho Leng, who is also Sarawak DAP chief.

“You can bet that this will be at the back of their minds when they go to vote.”

The clan

Way before Wong was announced as a candidate, the DAP experimented with the idea of fielding a woman by the name of Alice Lau.

According to reports in the Borneo Post, the party’s internal studies showed that the young lawyer attracted the most interest from the voters they surveyed compared to the other DAP leaders.

Yet ultimately, Lau was not even considered as a potential candidate.

The reason, according to sources, was that the Lau clan association felt that it was inappropriate for two people with the same surname and lineage — Alice Lau and BN’s Robert Lau Hi Chew — to contest against each other.

The two Laus supposedly are not related, yet the clan allegedly “discouraged” such a contest.

Political activists from both camps point out that if the clan could exert this kind of influence so early on, they would be crucial to the outcome of the by-election.

Johnny Hii, who researches Foochow history in Malaysia, says that the clans’ place in Sibu society was cemented ever since the first settlers landed on the banks of the Rejang River more than 100 years ago.

“As a Foochow back then, the clan helped you with the snakes, other Chinese and hostile tribes that you had to deal with. They also became the only way for the community to communicate with the British since no one spoke English.”

The clans’ ties to businessmen and politicians helped them to remain influential over the years. But not everyone likes this and given its ability to mould opinions and garner mass support, some feel they should be impartial.

“They have vested interests and it’s a bit unfair for them to support one group over another,” says an activist with one of the parties. He declined to identify which party he belonged to for fear of angering the clans.

In the Alice Lau episode, for instance, what’s not asked is why it was she and not Robert Lau was told to back off.

The Lau clan did not respond to emails for comments which were sent through an intermediary.

The haves

Sarawak, its locals will tell you, does not have the race and religious tensions that suffocate people in the peninsula.

Yet what its locals will not admit to but will endlessly talk about is that Sarawak has a "wealth" problem.

Wealth, who has it and who gives access to it, has shaped Sarawak society in the same way race and religion has moulded attitudes and lives in the peninsula.

With a poverty rate of 7.5 per cent, Sarawak is the fourth poorest state in the federation. Yet roughly one-third of all oil produced in Malaysia comes from Sarawak, says Wong.

Some of the biggest timber companies in the world are from Sarawak yet the indigenous people whose lands those trees sit on are miserably poor.

It’s not just about ladling out goodies to the people come election time, although Sarawak DAP publicity chief David Wong Kee Won says that is inevitable given how the Gawai festival, which is like Hari Raya Aidilfitri to Muslims, is on June 1.

“Our friends are going to get an early Gawai,” Kee Won says.

He narrates another example of the marriage between business and politics.

“I was talking to a timber tycoon a few months back. Throughout the conversation he looked pale. He told me if he was seen talking to me, he would lose his timber licences,” claims Kee Won.

The licences are given out and renewed each year by the BN state government.

“The same thing with restaurants and petty traders. Their licences are renewed each year with the municipal council. Some of them support us but do not dare to come out in the open.”

Coincidentally, the Sibu municipal council is chaired by Lanang MP and SUPP branch secretary Tiong Thai King.

And there’s the Ibans, who comprise 18 per cent of Sibu’s constituents. Besides the carrots, there is the parang, says a long-time Iban DAP sympathiser.

The tuai rumah of the longhouse is paid RM450 a month from the state government, which is still an ample amount of money in the hinterland.

In an Utusan Borneo report, Lubok Antu MP William Nyalau Badak told tuai rumah to resign if they did not support the BN and did not ensure that the families living under them did the same.

And the rest of us

“The municipal council is neutral. We have never intimidated businesses,” declares Tiong, refuting the Sarawak DAP’s claims. The state government has also been fair in dealing with businesses regardless of their partisan sympathies, he says.

“I think the people of Sibu can see for themselves what the reality is,” Tiong says, adding that the DAP was only trying to cast aspersions on the BN state government and Sarawak’s businesses.

He stresses that the BN has not twisted the arms of local residents and businesses for support.

The contest for Sibu is more than just about who can build a university and stop the town’s floods.

The two coalitions, BN and the newly-formed Sarawak Pakatan Rakyat (which includes the DAP, Parti Keadilan Rakyat, PAS and the Sarawak National Party) are hoping that the results will reflect the general trend of how Sarawakians will vote in the much bigger state elections that could be called later this year.

The DAP’s Kee Won is fairly confident that Pakatan can still secure more than 60 per cent of the Chinese vote. But that estimate is based on the results of the 2008 general election and on previous by-elections in the peninsula.

This after all, is Sarawak. And Kee Won admits that voters’ moods can be swayed by the blanket campaigning of the next few days.

In past by-elections, some Chinese communities which Pakatan had counted on for support had at the last minute given their votes to the BN. Those swings were thought to be due to 11th-hour entreaties to the clans in those areas.

It is the same with the Ibans. A church leader who works closely with the community observes that there has been a subtle shift in their support towards Pakatan.

“Some of them are no longer easily taken in with all the gula-gula (goodies) given to them. They can see beyond that.”

Problem is, he is not sure whether those "changed" Ibans are voters in Sibu.

And the same goes with the younger Chinese voters who tend to vote Pakatan. The majority of them have left Sibu to work elsewhere and no one’s counting on them to return just to vote.

So in the end, the fate of the by-election will be in the hands of those above 40, who grew up and have had their attitudes shaped by the forces and the social hierarchy that made the city and which has run it ever since.

It is a hierarchy rooted in an ideology of the establishment over the upstart, kinship over principles and survival over risk.

If things are to change then it’s up to the youth and those who supposedly “want change” to put their money where their beliefs are and buy that flight ticket.

BN’s Sibu man says faith not a campaign issue
By Adib Zalkapli
May 08, 2010

SIBU, May 8 — The Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate in the Sibu by-election, Robert Lau Hui Yew, appeared to be uncomfortable with religious issues brought into the campaign.

Lau believes the DAP’s approach in using issues affecting the Christian community such as the use of the word “Allah” as something unusual in Sibu.

“Religion is personal relationship between yourself and God, let us not politicise that. I am a Christian, I believe in Jesus Christ as our saviour, I believe in the Trinity,” said Lau when asked if he is doing anything specific to win over the Christian votes.

“Politics deals with human, social issue not so much about divinity but at the end whatever we do whatever we try we must be thankful to God,” he added.

“We don’t politicise religion, this has not happened in Sibu. Religion is divinity, politics is humanity,” he said when met after a dinner with the SUPP election machinery.

About 53 per cent of the 55,000 voters in the Sibu constituency are Christians. The Chinese form about 66.6 per cent of the voters, the largely Christian Ibans 16.3 per cent and the Malay/Melanau 16.2 per cent.

The DAP has been using its church-going leaders to engage the Christian community in Sibu. It has had also held a closed-door dialogue with the group where issues such as the use of the word “Allah” to refer to God in Malay were brought up.

“Don’t stereotype the Christians, we don’t have that kind of culture in Sibu. I do not want to fall into that trap, let us move on, be more progressive, we are one big family,” said Lau when asked about his stand on the “Allah” row.

The issue started in 2007 after the Home Ministry invoked a 1986 Cabinet directive banning non-Muslims from using certain Arabic words to refuse renewing the publication permit of the Catholic tabloid Herald.

The Catholic Church later challenged the government’s decision and on Dec 31 last year, the Kuala Lumpur High Court ruled that the Herald has the constitutional right to use the word “Allah” for its Malay section.

In January, Minister in the Prime Minister Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz assured the Christian community in Sabah and Sarawak that the ban on “Allah” would not affect them.

“It doesn’t resonate, not in Sibu,” said Lau (picture).

The former Sibu Municipal Councillor also slammed the DAP and its Pakatan Rakyat (PR) partners for their focus on national issues, saying that it shows their dependence on party leaders from Peninsular Malaysia.

“Let’s focus on this by-election, we are talking about Sibu. Will they be able to influence anything? They are not in the government,” said Lau, who is also the second cousin to five-term Sibu MP Datuk Robert Lau Hoi Chew who died last month.

“Whoever represents Sibu from the opposition will have to listen to Anwar Ibrahim, to Lim Kit Siang and to their West Malaysian leaders,” he added.

On the support from the Chinese voters, he hoped the community would join him in addressing issues affecting them.

“I hope the Chinese will have more trust in BN, to say that yes we have problems, yes there are issues to be addressed, but I always say move forward and ask the next question, what can you do? Criticising is easy,” said Lau.

In Election 2008, BN failed to get a majority of the votes in the Chinese-dominated Pelawan area despite winning the Sibu parliamentary seat by 3,235 votes.

Campaigning for the Sibu by-election starts today and polling is set for May 16.

Lau is expected to face DAP state chairman and Bukit Assek assemblyman Wong Ho Leng and an independent candidate Narawi Haron.