By Karen Bong
KUCHING, Dec 19: Sarawak People’s Aspiration Party (Aspirasi) was unable to build any kind of momentum as it failed to win a single seat in the 12th Sarawak Election (PRN12) but its president Lina Soo is determined to soldier on.
Soo lost her first contest for the N09 Padungan seat after she only managed to garner 193 votes.
Democratic Action Party (DAP) heavyweight Chong Chieng Jen clinched the seat with 1,198 vote-majority. He polled 4,686 votes over his rivals — Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) Dato Wee Hong Seng (3,488 votes) and Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) Raymond Thong (930 votes).
All Aspirasi’s 14 other candidates fielded in Pending, Batu Lintang, Kota Sentosa, Batu Kawah, Serembu, Mambong, Repok, Machan, Bukit Assek, Dudong, Pelawan, Tanjung Batu, Piasau and Pujut also performed badly.
“The people have spoken, as (Tun Dr) Mahathir (Mohamad) said, the people of Sarawak don’t want independence, they only want autonomy.
“Sarawakians still believe in the development theory. They can’t see the big picture,” she told DayakDaily when contacted last night.
Despite the party’s disappointing performance, Soo emphasised Aspirasi’s political struggles will continue, citing the reminder that it took the Scottish National Party 90 years to win and get a referendum for Scottish independence.
“Of course, I hope to see it (independence referendum for Sarawak) before I die,” she said.
However, Soo was of the opinion that it was hard to make comparisons between election outcomes as one has to look at the spending in proportion to the return per vote.
“Also one has to look at the votes per seat. For example, PBK (Parti Bumi Kenyalang) has more votes but they fought in 73 seats whereas we fought only 15.
“In addition, the money spent per candidate, where PSB (Parti Sarawak Bersatu) spent millions more on 70 seats. So it is hard to look at in terms of winning and losing,” she added. — DayakDaily
