Pushparani Thilaganathan | April 16, 2011
Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian withstood the onslaught of the Barisan Nasional machinery to win Ba'Kelalan by a small majority.
KUCHING: Battle-weary native customary rights (NCR) lawyer, Baru Bian, has much to be thankful for.
Having suffered a relentess assault by the Barisan Nasional (BN) election machinery, he has finally won the Ba’ Kelalan seat, albeit with a simple 473-vote majority.
He beat BN candidate Willie Liang, a young lawyer and political greenhorn. Liang is with Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP).
In the run-up to the nomination, the BN had omitted to announce its candidate for Ba’ Kelalan. According to BN sources, it simply did not have a candidate “strong enough” to match the Sarawak PKR chief.
And when they eventually announced Liang’s name, it was understood that Liang was in it for the experience.
This, however, is Bian’s third attempt. In 2006, he lost to SPDP secretary-general Nelson Rining by just over 400 votes.
Nonetheless for Bian, the 2011 victory in Ba’ Kelalan is telling.
“I’m glad the voters finally understand what we are talking about. The issues here are just land and religion.
“They know now where we (PKR) stand,” said Bian, a devout Christian.
Recalling the final days of campaigning, the soft-spoken Bian said that it had been “tough”, as he had to travel far into the interior to ensure voters knew who he was and the issues PKR stood for against the BN.
The BN assault against his candidacy and in the Ba’ Kelalan constituency had been tireless and multi-pronged.
Gifts didn’t help
For some reason, BN had decided that Ba’Kelalan, which is the smallest and remotest in the 71 constituencies, needed to be retained at all cost. It had been a stronghold of BN since 1996.
Perhaps it was because a win here would then position Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s move to harness the Dayaks.
The Ba’Kelalan constituency is home to the Orang Ulu, comprising the Lun Bawang, Kayan, Kenyan, Kelabit and Penan communities.
The Orang Ulu together with the Bidayuh, Iban and Melanau communities form the Dayaks, Sarawak’s majority population.
In this politically defining election, the Dayaks were wooed and cajoled and even allegedly intimidated into playing a decisive role.
And BN made sure it did everything possible to keep them in its fold.
“First, the BN top leaders came… even the prime minister, defence minister and Idris Jala. Then came the money and the gifts,” Bian said.
“But the people especially those in Long Semado, Long Sukang, Kampung Pengalih, and Purusia were very supportive. They didn’t succumb.”
Barely three weeks ago, Bian said the voters in Ba’Kelalan had complained about army intimidation.
Yesterday, PKR de facto chief Anwar Ibrahim said BN had brought in some 20,000 armed forces personnel into Sarawak for “security reasons”, but strangely they were “plainclothes” officers.Their arrival added to the mystery surrounding the “unexplainable” 87,000 new voters in Sarawak.
As to his next move, Bian said he would wait to see how PKR and Pakatan Rakyat as a whole performed in this 10th edition of the state election.
“We’ll will decide our next step after we see Pakatan’s performance here. As for my constituency, I will continue to do what I have been doing with them,” he said.
At the close of Sarawak’s hotly contested elections, the opposition had failed to deny BN its two- thirds majority.
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