KUCHING: Many had expected that the Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) would do well in the 15th general election (GE15), especially after having wrested several seats from DAP, including Kota Sentosa, Bukit Assek, Pelawan and Pujut in the state election in December last year.
However, SUPP, as part of the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) coalition, only managed to win two out of seven seats contested in GE15 which concluded on Saturday.
The party retained Serian and wrested Sarikei from DAP but failed to reclaim Sibu, Lanang, Stampin and Lanang as well as Miri from the opposition parties.
Prof Datuk Dr Jayum Jawan too, had expected SUPP to win more than two seats, as he thought that Chinese voters would punish DAP for its failure to deliver on many inflated promises made in the last general election.
“It would have been reasonable to expect a similar performance (as the state election). Also, SUPP President Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hian has always been working hard.
“By all indications, I also expected SUPP to do well as (I thought) DAP would be punished for failing to deliver (all the promises) when it was part of the Pakatan Harapan government,” he told New Sarawak Tribune.
“However, the other explanation could be that Chinese voters are back to their previous stand where if the state is given (voted) to SUPP, then the federal should be given to its opponent,” he said.
The political scientist of Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) said the reason or argument is that by having a few opposition Members of Parliament (MPs) it would give opportunity for Chinese representatives to raise issues that SUPP, as part of the government might not be able to do so, effectively.
“So, DAP raises the issues while SUPP has to solve them within the ruling government. A rather fair balance and practical,” he added.
Jayum, who is also Fellow of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia (FASc) said those living in the urban constituencies also know that development in major cities would not be stopped or even delayed even if the opposition won compared to how this would easily and frequently happen in rural based constituencies.
Most urban constituencies in Malaysia, he said, have been won by the opposition, DAP, even as they were labelled as unable to bring development “In Peninsular Malaysia, especially in Kuala Lumpur, there are about 11 parliamentary seats and when Chinese form the majority voters, the chances they would go to the opposition and especially DAP are higher than they opting for ruling party-supporting Chinese parties such as MCA and Gerakan,” he said.
“And this is nothing unusual for as long as memory serves,” he added.
