Sarawak vote shows Najib's base still solid

Ruling BN candidate wins by-election in key Malaysian state, with opposition still at odds

Ms Jamilah celebrating her landslide victory in the Tanjung Datu by-election with Sarawak Chief Minister Abang Johari Tun Openg (second from right) and other BN members last Saturday.
Ms Jamilah celebrating her landslide victory in the Tanjung Datu by-election with Sarawak Chief Minister Abang Johari Tun Openg (second from right) and other BN members last Saturday. PHOTO: BERNAMA

KUALA LUMPUR • A largely uncontested by-election in Sarawak has reaffirmed the strength of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak's base in a key state, showing the challenges his opponents face to defeat him in the next general election.

Ms Jamilah Anu, the widow of popular former chief minister Adenan Satem, easily won last Saturday's vote to fill a local assembly seat in Sarawak, one of two Malaysian states on Borneo island. It had been left vacant by the death of her husband in January, and major national opposition parties chose not to contest out of respect.

That is good news for Datuk Seri Najib, who has weathered more than a year of scandals and is weighing the right time to call the next federal election, due by mid-2018. Sarawak and neighbouring Sabah accounted for about a third of his Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition's seats in the last general election, and signs of waning support there would boost the opposition's chances of taking power for the first time since independence in 1957.

"Najib can be assured Sarawak BN will pretty much deliver its share of seats for the parliamentary election," said analyst Ibrahim Suffian of the Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research in Kuala Lumpur. "A lot depends on whether they can come up with a credible leader for the opposition. As things are right now, there isn't one in the offing."

The BN-led coalition kept power in 2013 with its slimmest margin ever, and would have lost if not for the Borneo states. Since then, Mr Najib has been mired in controversy surrounding several global probes into alleged corruption and money laundering by public officials at 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), the national development fund whose advisory board he had chaired.

Yet opposition parties have struggled to take advantage of Mr Najib's woes. The coalition that banded together four years ago under the leadership of Anwar Ibrahim has fractured since his imprisonment following a sodomy conviction and has yet to find a way to regroup.

Sarawak voters ignored the 1MDB scandal during a state election last year, handing BN an even bigger majority in the local assembly. Rather than banding together to take on BN, the two major opposition parties - the Democratic Action Party (DAP) and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) - returned to previous habits of fighting against each other.

The ruling coalition had a clear appeal to voters, promising handouts to the poor and development projects, including a RM28.9 billion (S$9.2 billion) highway linking the two Borneo states. BN was also buoyed by Mr Adenan, the late chief minister, who led the coalition's election campaign and became popular by fighting for issues close to the hearts of Sarawak voters, including greater autonomy for the state.

PKR's head in Sarawak, Mr Baru Bian, said the opposition was willing to sit out Saturday's polls out of respect for Mr Adenan and to give his successor a chance to carry out his vision. "They are the same issues that we have been championing," Mr Baru said. "The question now is whether she is going to deliver. When the time comes for the general election, that is how the people will judge."

Opposition parties also realise they face an image problem in the Borneo states, including that they are too focused on peninsular Malaysia, which sits across the South China Sea and is home to both the country's economic capital, Kuala Lumpur, and its administrative one, Putrajaya. "To me, one major key to getting into Putrajaya is Sabah and Sarawak," DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said earlier this month. "But it appears... we have forgotten about Sabah and Sarawak." He suggested the opposition had to do a better job of highlighting the scandals surrounding Mr Najib to voters in Borneo rather than "preaching to the converted".

BN members are confident that as long as they follow through on promises made in local campaigns, they will remain a bulwark against the opposition, said Mr James Masing, one of Sarawak's two deputy chief ministers and a BN legislator.

"Sarawak will remain a BN fixed deposit," he said.

BLOOMBERG

Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on February 21, 2017, with the headline Sarawak vote shows Najib's base still solid. Subscribe