KUCHING: State Barisan Nasional (BN) secretary-general Dato Sri Dr Stephen Rundi recently said BN was confident in wrestling back four seats in the pending general election from the opposition.
As all the six seats lost by BN are Chinese majority seats, it has been assumed that he was confident of BN winning back the Chinese voters. The six seats are Bandar Kuching, Stampin, Sarikei, Lanang, Sibu and Miri.
Rundi who is also Utilities Minister however, refused to disclose which are the four seats he was referring to except to say that BN had the strategies to materialise the prediction.
On the other side of the political divide, this morning at a Pakatan Harapan Sarawak press conference at DAP headquarters, its chairman Chong Chieng Jen when asked by the media whether he was confident in retaining all the six seats under the Opposition, Chong replied that not only will they retain all six seats, the Opposition coalition was confident of capturing an additional four from BN.
When pressed by the media to identify which are the four seats, Chong, like Rundi refused to disclose further details, except to point out that the four targeted seats comprise rural and suburban seats.
“There are chances of wrestling back four more seats on top of defending the six seats.”
One of the reasons, he said being that there was no more ‘Adenan Effect’.
“(Late Chief Minister Pehin Sri) Adenan (Satem) gave people hope; (Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi) Abang Johari (Tun Openg) gives disappointment,” said Chong, who is also Bandar Kuching MP and Kota Sentosa assemblyman.
The other reason, Chong said, was that since the 13th General Election, though BN has maintained its position as the ruling coalition, life under BN has become tougher as the cost of living has been going up and the value of the ringgit has been depreciating.
Chong further claimed that Rundi knows what has been going on on the ground and that Rundi knows which are the four seats Chong was referring to.
It is apparent that the four seats Rundi was referring to are different from the four seats Chong was referring to.
This is the mystery of the four seats or to be more precise, the mystery of the eight seats.
