By Lian Cheng
KUCHING, Nov 26: An election is not about winning and politics is not just about one election.
This is the view of Sarawak People’s Aspiration Party (Aspirasi) president Lina Soo, who despite losing her deposits in two executive Sarawak Elections, was adamant to take the path less travelled.
“It does not matter if I don’t win in the elections. Yes, I lost my deposits. The important thing is, everybody knows me and what I speak for. So I am very satisfied with that because election is not about winning. Politics is not about one election. This is how I feel, and we have young ones to take over,” Soo told DayakDaily after lodging a police report at Padungan Police Station today.
Soo lodged a police report against a suspected extortion case today.
Soo contested in Batu Lintang during the 2011 Sarawak Election as an independent and lost her deposit after garnering only 290 votes.
In the 2016 Sarawak Election, Soo stood again in Batu Lintang consitutuency under State Reform Party (the former name of Aspirasi) and she managed to poll 41 votes more to garner 331 votes, but still lost her deposit.
“Why do I continue even after losing my deposits? Because I have a message for the people. Rome was not built in one day. The journey of a thousand mile starts with the first step,” she said.
She said since 2013, she has been raising the issue of self-determination and later Sarawak’s independence and Sarawak’s rights.
She claimed to be one of those in the group that created awareness on the significance of July 22, Sarawak Day and was demanding for the day to be made a public holiday then.
Sarawak for Sarawakians (S4S) and her fight finally bore fruit in 2016 when former Chief Minister, the late Pehin Sri Adenan Satem declared July 22 as a public holiday for Sarawak.
Soo said she was also one of the first Sarawakians to hold a public forum as early as 2014 on the discussion of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).
The forum was so successful that the Federal government de-registered the NGO, Sarawak Association for Peoples’ Aspiration (Sapa), that organised the meeting.
“But today, everybody is talking about it (MA63). So there is always a gestation period. It doesn’t happen overnight but as long as my message gets across, I consider myself successful,” said Soo.
On the question why she contested twice in Batu Lintang but for this election, she chose Padungan, her answer was direct and simple — “I was born here”, she said, pointing at a shoplot a few units away from the Padungan Police Station.
She added that she contested in Batu Lintang previously because she was giving way to former Padungan assemblyman Dominique Ng.
“Both Dominique and I, we came out of PKR (Parti Keadilan Rakyat). He stood in Padungan, so I stood in Batu Lintang,” said Soo. — DayakDaily
