By Karen Bong
KUCHING, Dec 29: DAP Sarawak has publicly apologised for falling short of public expectations especially during their 22 months in the Federal government, which resulted in low voter turnout and split-voting that led to the party’s worst ever performance in the recently concluded 12th Sarawak Election.
Democratic Action Party (DAP) Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen emphasised that the turnout of Chinese voters was particularly low even though the total turnout recorded was 60.67 per cent.
“In the urban polling stations where Chinese voters were the majority, the recorded turnout was in the range of 40 to 50 per cent.
“For polling stations where the majority voters were Bumiputera or natives, the turnout rates were in the range of 65 to 70 per cent. The army and police voters recorded more than 75 per cent turnout,” he said in a press conference after the party’s meeting to discuss the post-mortem reports of the election result.
The newly elected Padungan assemblyman noted that such voting patterns was apparent across Sarawak, where the desire to vote amongst the Chinese was very low, in contrary to the 2018 General Election where the turnout was more than 65 per cent.
He acknowledged that the low voter turnout and split-voting was due to the general sentiment of disappointment among the electorates in many of the constituencies contested.
“The low turnout and vote splitting among the Chinese urban voters in this election was obvious. Regardless, we accept and respect the decision of the voters.
“Such sentiment was because the DAP and Pakatan Harapan (PH), during the 22 months of being Federal government, did not manage to match the expectations of the people.
“Though we started to implement many reforms within the government system, and introduced many good governance and people friendly measures, we still fell short of what was expected of us during our time in the government,” he admitted.
On whether people were choosing local-based parties over Peninsula-based parties could be a factor leading to their poor performance, Chong said local party issues have been around for the last 30 to 40 years.
On behalf of DAP Sarawak, he also expressed their sincere thanks to those who have continued to support and place their confidence in the party.
“To those who have voted for DAP to bring about change of government but in this State Election decided not to continue supporting DAP because we did not live up to your expectations, we wish to extend our sincere apology for falling short of such expectations.”
Despite this, Chong assured that DAP Sarawak will continue to do their best in their political struggle for more transparency, accountability, good governance, fairness and check and balance in the government system.
“We will continue to play our role as the responsible Opposition, supporting what is right and opposing the wrong by the government-of-the-day,” he added.
Pending assemblywoman Violet Yong, Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii, former Pelawan assemblyman David Wong, former Tanjung Batu assemblyman Chiu Chiew Sing and DAP Sarawak secretary Alan Ling were among those present.— DayakDaily
