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MIRI – Sympathetic but stern – that seems to be the tone of netizens commenting on DAP’s heavy defeat in the Sarawak polls yesterday.
The party’s leaders have been “advised” to not be overly-confident and arrogant in their approaches.
Several comments were directed to state DAP chairman Chong Chien Jen, urging him not to be too confrontational with other politicians.
This is a good time for all of you in DAP to do some good reflections. Sorry that you lost badly as you have been the voice of the people. But you have always been loud, vigorous and criticising in your style.
“Why did so many turn away and vote for the government? Your party must ponder the results seriously,” netizen Catherine Cheng commented on the Sarawak DAP facebook page today.
Another netizen, Shamsul Nizam, hopes the heavy loss will be a lesson for DAP.
“You must take these losses as a lesson. We want checks and balances in the government, but we want the opposition not to be too loud and confrontational, criticising all the time,” he said.
Netizen Zhen Shen said the rakyat needs a strong opposition for check and balance in Sarawak.
However, the opposition cannot be attacking each other and quarreling all the time, said Zhen.
DAP won two (Padungan and Pending) out of the 26 seats contested.
Datuk Peter Minos of the ruling Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) said the opposition parties were badly defeated in this state election because of their leaders’ boastful nature, their inability to compromise and their constant clamouring for the chief minister post.
Minos told The Vibes that the opposition leaders had displayed a high and mighty attitude throughout the state election, and even before.
“This has annoyed many Sarawakians,” said Minos, who is deputy information chief of Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu, the backbone of GPS.
Those in the opposition parties, especially in DAP and Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB), were brash and arrogant, their leaders criticising the other party, boasting about who will be the next chief minister.
“Even before they win any seat, they are already fighting with each other. They cannot work with each other. They were constantly arguing publicly, challenging each other with who will be the better chief minister.
“They were so concerned with their personal ambitions. This sort of peninsula-style politics does not go down well with Sarawakians. The GPS presented Sarawakians with the choice of a stable team and the voters opted for this and rejected the arrogant opposition,” he said.
GPS swept 76 seats, PSB four and DAP two seats in the 12th Sarawak polls.
“We did not expect such a big win,” he said, adding that the victory shows that Sarawakians favoured the state government’s development agenda. – The Vibes, December 19, 2021