review of the sibu by-election

attended the sibu forum yesterday. there were about 50 people in attendance and several media people, including my friend, susan loone. she had written about the forum in malaysiakini and you can read about it below as i CnP from malaysiakini.

ong boon keong, one of the speaker, had also wrote about it in the sarawak news blog. well as there are already 2 persons writing about it, i’m not going to write about it anymore but just put up the photos of the speakers while they were giving the talk (taken by yours truly). these photos will be along side susan’s article. please click on ‘read more’ to read.

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Malaysiakini

Guan Eng’s blooper in Sibu
Susan Loone
May 31, 10
12:33pm

An independent observer revealed a blooper by DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng while visiting longhouses during the Sibu by-election in Sarawak earlier this month.

Lim, who is also Penang chief minister, is claimed to have asked the residents if Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud had ever given them RM100 as part of an appreciation programme for senior citizens (as implemented in Penang).

“What do you think the response was?” asked Ong Boon Keong, representing the Malaysian Election Observers Network at the ‘Multi-perspective review of the Sibu by-election’ forum in Penang last night.

Everyone kept quiet and dared not tell (him) that (at) every election, they receive RM600 per door! If the DAP helpers (had known) this, they wouldn’t (have gone) around asking every house if they had received RM100, as they would (have known) this rate does not sell (in longhouses).”

Abdul Taib had (left) – on the last leg of the by-election campaign – announced a grant totalling RM147,600 for the 12 longhouses in Tanjong Penasu, with each of the 246 ‘doors’ to receive RM600.

PAS representative Zamry Ibrahim, also a Kedah municipal councillor, pointed out that Pakatan Rakyat’s presence was

sorely lacking in Sibu, especially among the Malay/Muslim community.

“Many among the Malay/Melanau and Dayak community have supported the opposition even before (the) March 8 (general election in 2008), but they are not organised. This group will vote anyone as long as it is not BN,” he claimed.

“Many want change but are afraid to express it because BN has managed to control most of them through their longhouse leaders, by either threatening them or bribing them.”

He was referring to the RM450 allowance paid by the government to the leaders.

EC criticised

Political analyst Cheah Kah Seng reviewed the Election Commission’s performance.

While noting that there was no proof of fraud during this by-election, the commission’s ‘sloppy work’ presented an opportunity for ‘phantom’ voters, he claimed.

“Negligence creates the opportunity for ‘phantom’ voters. For example, a lot of longhouses have no numbers, so large addresses were created,” he said.

“There are also massive voter movement, which created confusion. How many people would have missed voting because they could not find their polling station?”

Malaysiakini journalist Joseph Sipalan Jr, who covered the polls, spoke about media bias and how coverage differed between the mainstream and alternative media.

He related stories about how the local press had obtained orders from the top to block out news about the opposition, but said the alternative media had tried to give as much coverage to BN as possible

“Due to lack of staff (Malaysiakini had sent three reporters to Sibu), we had to narrow our perspective. We had to pick and choose and we covered Pakatan because they are not covered by the mainstream media,” he said.

DAP’s Wong Ho Leng (left) unexpectedly grabbed the Sibu parliamentary seat from BN with a majority of 398 votes, in the polls concluded on May 16.