On the nomination day of the Sarawak State Election on 25th April 2016, Lim Kit Siang who was present at DUN Tasik Biru nomination center described the battle in Tasik Biru between Dato Henry Jinep of Barisan Nasional (BN) and I as the litmus test of DAP in Dayak majority seat. Tasik Biru is a constituency comprises of 68% Dayak, 26% Chinese and 6% Malay Melanau. BN eventually won with 1,288 majority, garnering 6,922 votes (55%) versus DAP 5,634 votes (45%).
Although we lost the seat, we made significant inroads in this Dayak majority seat. In the 13th General Election, I contested for parliamentary seat Mas Gading, which comprises of two DUNs – Tasik Biru and Opar, and garnered 5,293 votes while in this election, we obtained more votes (5,634) in just one DUN alone. At the micro-level, we won in 4 out of 20 Dayak villages, with one of them as high as 70%. We averaged at 40% votes for Dayak localities. Such achievement was unimaginable 3 years ago.
We managed to make significant inroads into the Bidayuh heartland despite BN’s systematic pouring of cash handouts on the last day and fear tactics – the villagers were told that the government would cut their water, electricity and welfare if BN were to lose the seat! Furthermore, we achieved this despite the visits of the Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem, Federal Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, Federal Deputy Home Minister Nur Jazlan Mohamed and the Prime Minister himself Dato Seri Najib Razak at four separate occasions in the short 12-day campaign period with additional cash and election promises. In fact, the campaign team was astonished at the last minute visit of the Prime Minister on the last day of the campaign! Bersih, which was here to observe the election, has reported various serious election offences committed by BN, but there was no further action taken by the election commission.
Did we lose Tasik Biru because of BN money politics? I am not sure. But I am sure that we lost it because we decided not to buy votes. Since the beginning of the campaign, quite a number of people have suggested to me, whether implicitly or explicitly, to hand out cold, hard cash to targeted voters in order to secure victory. By hook or by crook, to win is crucial. And you cannot beat the dark side by not playing their tricks. Or so they said.
Mathematically, if we were to buy 1,000 votes with RM50 each, we might be able to win the seat with RM50,000. (It turned out that we lost 1,288 votes, which amount to only 644 votes to purchase to overturn the deficit). Nevertheless, at the risk of losing the battle, we decided to stand by our principle and declined the agents who were all too ready to play intermediaries in paying cash to secure ballots to the villagers.
In the end, we lost the seat. When the result was announced in our election operation center, many of us in the campaign team could not hold back our tears. We hugged each other and cried. All the hard work that I have put on the ground for the past 5 years as well as the many months of preparation by the election team, could not overcome the cash handouts, election promises as well as fear and intimidation.
But the DAP cannot and will not give up on Tasik Biru and our rural outreach because of this temporary setback. I remember the lady who wore the UBAH t-shirt with pride carrying her baby and walked with a torchlight in the dark kampung path leading up to our ceramah venue; I remember many of the villagers despite having financial difficulties stood with us against the big money from Barisan Nasional; I remember having discussions with the single mothers who canvassed for us but were fearful that their involvement in the campaign would deprive their children of the opportunities to study and to benefit from scholarships; I remember another lady from a kampung who told me determinately that her vote and dignity cannot be bought with money; I remember the faces of all of the campaign workers that were full of pride when I said in my defeat speech that “We have fought the battle with dignity and principle”; I remember every face that looked to me with the hope of change and for a better future.
With the current inroads that we made as well as the lessons learnt from this defeat with improvement on our rural service and campaign strategy, I am confident that the DAP will one day win the Tasik Biru state seat and the Mas Gading parliamentary seat. And we will win with our heads held high, with the pride that we have finally overcome the politics of money and fear.
Malaysians must continue to strive hard until justice roll on like a river and righteousness like a never-failing stream on our land. Till then, let us not lose hope, we must not give up.