By Lian Cheng
SERIAN, Dec 9: To change the political landscape of Sarawak, one must first tackle rural seats because out of the total of 82 seats in the State, only 18 are urban seats while the remaining are rural seats.
Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) which was formerly known as Barisan Nasional (BN) Sarawak has been able to boast of its strength in rural areas which has been the main factor securing its place as the ruling coalition for the last 50 years.
In the 2016 Sarawak Election, BN Sarawak lost only the two rural seats of Krian and Ba’Kelalan.
At that time, it was Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) which posed the biggest threat to the ruling coalition.
This, however, may not be the case anymore, following political developments after the 2018 General Election.
In the 2018 General Election, due to infighting within Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS), Sarawak BN lost Julau, Selangau, Lubok Antu, and later after the election, Sri Aman.
Other seats it lost during the parliamentary election were to Sarawak Democratic Action Party (DAP) were Mas Gading, Bandar Kuching, Stampin, Puncak Borneo, Sarikei, Lanang and Sibu.
It lost also Miri to PKR.
Out of the 13 parliamentary seats lost, six of them were rural seats. This rung a warning bell for GPS candidates contesting in rural constituencies.
GPS is facing tough and formidable challenges in rural areas. The seemingly countless flags of the opposition parties such as Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB), Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) flying high along the Kuching-Serian Road speak volumes of the unrelenting determination of the Opposition to gain a foothold in rural areas.
Bukit Semuja incumbent John Ilus when contacted only asked of one thing from the voters: “Give me another five years, to allow me to continue with the projects that we have in store for Serian”.
Even though he is not facing personalities which are locally well-known and popular, John said he will not rest on his laurels but continue to work hard to ensure that Serian town and its vicinity are well-developed. This is despite the fact that Serian town or for that matter Serian Division is growing fast.
At a quick glance, one may even mistaken Serian township for the Kota Sentosa township, even though they are about 90km apart. The town is experiencing the same problem as Kota Sentosa — the pace of development is so fast that infrastructure, especially the road system has failed to keep up, resulting in traffic jams, and lack of car parking spaces as well as space for further development.
“Yes, I know Serian town needs to be expanded to meet the needs of the people and to keep up with the pace of development. But there are already so many ongoing projects, we have to wait for some projects to be completed first, before we can bring in new projects,” said John. — DayakDaily
