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FAISALS. HAZIS STANLEYBYE KADAM-KIAI

Universiti Kota Samarahan 20L3 ] $ @ Faisal S. Hazis, Stanley Bye Kadam-Kai All rights reserved.No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Publication in Malaysia by Penerbit Universiti Malaysia Sarawak Universiti Malaysia Sarawak 94300 Kota Samarahan,Sarawak, Malaysia

Printed in Malaysia by PercetakanNasional Malaysia Berhad (PNMB), Jalan TunAbang Haji Openg, 93554 , Sarawak

Perpustakaan Negara M alaysia Cataloguing in Publication Data

POLITICAND LOCAL GOVERNMENTin Sarawak / EDITORSFAISAL S.HAZIS,STAI*I,EY BYE KADAM-KIAI ISBN 978- 967 -5527 -60-9 1. Politi cal cu-lture-.-Sarawak.2. Lo cal government- -Sarawak. 3. Sarawak--Politics and government. I. Faisal S.Hazis. II. Stanley Bye Kadam Kiai. 320.959522 Contents

List of Abbreviations I List of Tablesand Figures v Contributors vii Preface viii

Chapter 1. Introduction Faisal S. Hazis and Stanley Bye Kadam- Kiai

Chapter2 State Formation and Strongmen T7 Politics :tron Data Faisal S. Hazis

Chapter3 The'J.970Election and lts Significance 49 to SarawakPolitics Stanley Bye Kadam-Kiai

Chapter4 Ethno- and Electoral 71 Clientelism:The Dayaks'Experience Neilson IIan Mersat 109 Chapter5 Factionalismin lban Politics LucySebli Seidelson L69 Chapter6 The Questfor a MalaysianNationalism in Sarawak AndrewAeria 199 Chapter7 The Politics of Islam in Sarawak FaisalS. Hazis 235 Chapter8 Local GovernmentAdministration in Sarawak Ahi Sarok 269 Chapter9 Developmentand Administration: Lessonsfrom the Bintulu DeneloPmentAuthoritY Stanlry tsYeKadam'Kisi 109

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:59 List of Abbreviations # .iBF Asian-B intulu Fertilizer \BIM AngkatanBelia Islam Malaysia :) \ :i.-{ BarisanAlternatif :]ARJASA Barisan Rakyat fati Sarawak 3BS Barisan Bersatu Sarawak 3DA Bintulu Development AuthoritY 3DC Bintulu District Council 3 ERASA Parti Bersatu Rakyat |elata Sarawak 3 ERSATU Parti Rakyat Bersatu Sarawak 3INA Angkatan Nahddatul Islam Bersatu B\1A British Military Administration 3\ BarisanNasional r-\1S CahyaMata Sarawak . OAC Centrefor OrangAsli Concerns )AP )CCI DayakChamber of Commerceand Industry DCS Development Control Standard DBKU Dewan Bandaraya Kuching Utara DDEC Divisional Development Executive Committee EC ElectionCommission EPU EconomicPlanning Unit EXCO State ExecutiveCouncil FSLC Federal-StateLiaison Committee HIKMAH Harakah Islamiah HIU Health InspectorateUnit ICU Implementation and Coordination Unit IGC I nter- GovernmentalC ommittee ISA Internal Security Act IArS fabatan Agama Islam Sarawak KeADILan Parti Keadilan Nasional KLIA Kuala Lumpur International Airport KMB Kuching Municipal Board KMC Kuching Municipal Council KMM Kumpulan Mujahidin Malaysia KSB Kuching Sanitary Board LAO Local Authority Ordinance LDC Limbang District Council MBKS Majlis BandarayaKuching Selatan MCA MalaysianChinese Association MCC Miri City Council MDC MalaysianDayak Congress MEPH Ministry of Environment and Public Health MLNG MalaysianLiquefied Natural Gas MNU Malay National Union MRP Minor Rural Project NAL Native Area Land NCL Native Customary Land NCLG National Council for Local Government

. NCR Native Customary Rights NDP National Development PolicY NDPC National Development Planning Committee NEGARA Sarawak NEP New EconomicPolicy NFC National Finance Council NGO Non GovernmentalOrganisation NLC National Land Council NREB Natural Resourcesand Environment Board PAIAR Parti Anak Jati Sarawak Unit PANAS Parti NegaraSarawak PAS Parti Islam SeMalaysia PBB Parti PesakaBumiputera Bersatu PBDS Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak PBS Parti Bersatu Sabah PCM Parti Cinta Malaysia PERKIM Pertubuhan Kebajikan Islam Malaysia PERKIS PersatuanKebajikan Islam Sarawak PERMAS Persatuan Rakyat Malaysia Sarawak. PESAKA Parti PesakaAnak Sarawak PKR Parti Keadilan Rakyat PMC PadawanMunicipal Council PNRS Parti Negara Rakyat Sarawak POD Politicsof Development PR PRS ic Health PWD Public Works Department ROS Registrar of Societies SAPO SarawakPeople's PartY scA SarawakChinese Association SDGA SarawakDayak GraduateAssociation sDo State Development Office SEDC State Economic Development Corporation SESCO Sarawak Electricity Supply Corporation SLC State Land Code SMC Sibu Municipal Council SNAP Sarawak National Party SPC State Planning Committee SPDP Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party STAR State Reform Party SUCA Sarawak United ChineseAssociation SUHAKAM Suruhanjaya Hak Asasi Malaysia SUPP Sarawak United People's Party TOL Temporary Occupation License UMAT Parti Umat Sarawak UMNO United Malay National Organization UNIMAS Universiti Malaysia Sarawak YADIM YayasanDakwah Islamiah Malaysia

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List of Tables

'! SarawakState Elections,201'I &2006 2

.,1 The BN's Popular Vote in the SarawakState 4 Elections,'J.970 -2011' How to Apply for Minor Rural Projects 85 PoliticalParties Contested in the 2006 89 Elections .#, PoliticalParties Contested in the 2008 91, Elections Populationby Ethnic Group and Residence, 737 Sarawak,1,99I The 1970 ElectionResults in the Malay/ 21'B MelanauSeats [Malay/Melanau > 50o/oof the electorateJ ) PASin the 1999 SarawakParliamentary 220 Election -) SeatsContested by PASin the 2001 Elections 222

-a SeatContested by PASin the 2004 Election 224

J SeatContested by PASin the 2006 Election 225 BDAs Corporations 285 FederalLoans to BDA 286 BDAs CorporateInvestment 1990 -1993 287 List of Figures

2.L Territorial Expansionof "Old Sarawak"to L9 "New Sarawak",L84L-L905 5.1, BiIiK L23 8.1 LocalGovernment System based on the 256 LocalGovernment Act, L976 8.2 The OrganizationalStructure of Local 259 Authorities

vt Contributors

l9 Ahi Sarok is a Senior Lecturer and Head of Universiti Malaysia Press. He obtained his PhD in Public Administration 123 Sarawak hom the Universiti of Malaya in 2009. His research interests are 256 in the area of Public Administration, Bidayuh politics and cultural sttrdies. 25e Andrew Aeria is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. An active member of Aliran KesedaranNegara, one of Malaysia'sleading human rights organizations,he obtained his PhD in Political Economy from the london School of Economicsand Political Sciencein 2002. His researchinterests are in the area of politics, business,demo cracy and human rights. He also contributes regular expert political analyses and commentaries on Malaysia and Singapore fot Enterprise LSE and IDEAGIobnI.

Faisal S. Hazis is a Senior Lecturer and Head of Department (Politics and International RelationsJ at the Faculty of Social Sciences,Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. He obtained his PhD in Political Sciencefrom the Universiti Sains Malaysia in 2008. His researchinterests include electoralstudies, state-so ciety relations, Sarawakpolitics and rural informatics.

Lucy Sebli Seidelson is a Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Social Sciences,Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. She obtained her PhD in sociology from Hull university in 2005. Her research interests include political culture, cultural studies and gender and politics. teilson llan Mersat is an Associate Professor and Deputy Dean 'dlF I

fPostgraduateand Research)at the Faculty of social scie universiti Malaysia Sarawak.He obtained his phD in poli science from the Australian National universiV in zaffi. researchinterests include voting behaviorand lban politics.

stanley Bye Kadam Kiai is a Senior Lecturer and pro coordinator fPolitics and GovernmentJat the Faculty of sciences,universiti Malaysia sarawak He obtained his MA sociologyof Developingsocieties from Hull Universityin 1990. research interests include voting behaviourpublic administrati political sociologyand electoralstudies.

vul -:ences, ,'olitical l, His Preface . i.

:'ogram : Social This book is a collection of articles written by members . in \1A : the Department of Politics and International Relationsat the '.90.His :-icully of SocialSciences, Universiti MalaysiaSarawak. It covers .:ration, :',.,'ogeneral themes, politics and local government. The book .:raws attention to the history and dominant trends in Sarawak ;.oliticswithin the last five decades.It also highlights some of the -,rntestingforces that attempt to challengethe status quo. The .,:condtheme of the book, on the other hand, coversthe system I government in the state with particular focus on the issues - onfrontingthe local government.

The ideabehind this book was sparkedby the needto fill the .rteraturegap on Sarawakpolitics that has been left unattended Irrr Sort€ time. Since most of the existing literature covers the ,olonial and post-colonial period, this book analyzes Sarawak rolitics within the present context.Furthermore, this book hopes lo contribute to the ongoing debate on state power in Malaysia .:speciallyits capabilitiesto dominate Sarawak'smulti-ethnic and :lulti-religious society.While many existing literature tend to :ocus on the overwhelming power of the state,this book argues :hat the state has to occasionallyaccommodate to various forces .,,.'hichsubsequently lead to changeswithin the society and the irate itself.

In publishing this book, there are several individuals and .:rstitutionsthat had greatly helped us in making this project a :eality.First and foremost,we would like to thank the contributors :trrtheir support.Notto forget,special thanks to UniversitiMalaysia S.rrawakPublisher for giving us the platform to share our views and

tx knowledge with the general public especiallyfellow sarawakians. Nonetheless,the individuals and institutions mentioned here are not responsiblefor the views expressedin this book. That burden we solely shoulder.

FaisalS. Hazis StanleyBye Kadam-Kiai fanuary 2013 Table 1.1: SarawakState Elections,Z0l1 &2006

2011 2006 o/o PoliticalCoalition/Party SeatsWon % SeatsWon % Popular Popular Popular Vote Vote Vote Chanoe BarisanNasional 55rl) 55.4 2 fl1\ 62.9 -7.5 PBB 35 (35) 8.7 35 (35) 29.5 -0.8 SUPP 6 (19) 16.6 11(19) 20.9 -4.3 PRS I (9) 5.2 I (e) 6.1 0.9 SPDP 6 (8) 4.9 8 (B) 6.4- 1.5 Pakatan Rakvat 15 (69) 38.9 7(38) 24.2 14.7 PKR 3 (49) 17.4 1 (25\ 8.7 8.7 DAP 12 fis\ 20.1 6 (2\ 15.1 5.0 PAS 0 (5) 1.4 0(1 0.4 1.0 SNAP 0 (26) 2.3 1(.2gl 9.5 -7.2 PCM 0 (6) 0.4 Independent 1 (411 3.0 1eol 3.4 -0.4 Total 71 (213l 100.0 71 (158) 100.0

source: Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya Malaysia (undated, pp.g9-101) and Berita Minggu (201I, pp.10-1a) Notes: Figures in represent the total number of seats contested

Significant changeswere taking place in the peninsula but the largest state in Malaysia remained largely intact. The 2008 'tsunami' did not reach the shores of Sarawakas made evident by the BN'selectoral dominance; securing 30 out of 3L parliamentary seats which significantly contributed to the ruling party's hold of the federalgovernment. The status-quo,howeve4 was setto change three years later. In the hotly contested 2011 state election, the opposition made significant breakthrough by winning 16 out of 7l- seatswhich were their biggest haul since tgg7 (the opposition secured20 out of 48 seatsin 1987J.This led to a significantdrop in the BN'spopular vote from 62.9percent in 2.006to 55.4 percent in 201'1;representing a 7.5 percentagepoints decline.Among the people'sparty BN component parties, Sarawakunited fsUpp) was the biggest casualty when it lost thirteen seats feleven Chinese majority seats,one lban seat and one mixed seat), whereas parti PesakaBumiputera Bersatu [PBB) continued its dominance by r & 2006 n'inning all 35 seats that the party had contested.The other two B\ component parties, Parti Rakyat Sarawak [PRS) and Sarawak ProgressiveDemocratic Party [SPDP),did relatively well despite .osingone and two seatsrespectively. On the opposition front, the Democratic Action Party [DAP) fared better than the rest when :he oldest opposition party in Sarawak captured twelve out of lhe fifteen seats that the party contested [Padungan, Pending, ,Batu Kawa, ,Meradong, ,, 'fom , Kidurong, , PujutJ, With the slogan Ubah' i Lets Change),the DAP managed to cajole a great number of the urban electorate,especially the Chinese,in throwing their support oehind the party. Another opposition party, Parti Keadilan Rakyat iPKR), failed to match DAP's stunning feat when it managed to i01) and Berita capture merely three seats fBatu Lintang, , Ba'kelalan)while Parti Islam SeMalaysia[PAS) failed to win any. Other opposition parties failed to make any impact except for an Independent candidatewho won in the highly contested seat of . m Peninsulabut percent the ruling party m,tact.The 2008 Despite polling less than 60 votes, percent of the seats. This mal- enadeevident by managed to secure almost B0 increases the 31 parliamentary apportionment is due to rural weightage which increasing the parry's hold of value of rural vote compared to urban vote, thus (Lim p.105). In fact, ras setto change electoralpower of the rural electorate 2002, state and parliamentary frrte election,the Sarawakhas the highest mal-apportioned favoring the political rtnning L6 out of seats[5.8 times) in the country, thus unfairly (Lim 2002,p.t22). the opposition party that has strong rural support, i,e.the BN that the ruling coalition r srgnificantdrop This discrepancysomehow hides the fact voters who had to 55.4percent had lost considerablesupport among Sarawak the ruling party since irne.Among the gradually begun to turn their back against 'J..2,the popular vote in 2011 had Fartr'(SUPP)was 2001.As indicatedin Table BN's points from 2001. In elevenChinese dropped by a staggering 15.8 percentage recent state election rvhereasParti addition, the votes polled by BN in the most matched the support that the party received in 1,987in which it lost its two-thirds majority. Clearly,the 20ll election represents a significant shift in Sarawakpolitics. The question is what had 'storm' triggeredthe that hit the stateon April 16,2011.

Table 1.2: The BN's Popular Vote in the Sarawak State Election s, 1^97O-?OLL

o/o Year votes 1970 39 1974 55

1979 D i.z 1983 685 1987 552 199 628

Ivvo 666 2001 712 2006 62.9 .2Ai r- A 1 JJ.'f

Source:Faisal (2012, p.3)

One of the major issuesto have affectedvoting behavior in the 201l- electionwas ChiefMinister Abdul TaibMahmud who had helmed the state for more than 30 years.Apart from overstaying his term, Taib had becomea sourceof discontentamong many urban voters due to his family and cronies'monopoly of Sarawak economy,pro-business land policiesthat underminethe interest of the people,divide and rule policiesaimed at consolidatinghis position, marginalizationof rural populaceand polarizationof politics along ethnic lines.Regardless of the truth behind it, these perceptionsmanaged to swing the support of many urban voters, especiallvthe Chinese,to the DAPas made evidentfrom its near represents :otal sweep of 13 Chineseseats. Other issuesthat had an impact rs rvhat had ;n the urban voterswere the SUPP'sdeclining influence within the 11 :uling coalition,the Chineseschool education,the Allah and Al- {itab issues,and a host of other local issuessuch as land renewal State :ate,price hikes,flooding and lack of development.The opposition larties, especially the DAB were able to exploit the electorates sentiments against the government by putting up a strong and eftectivecampaign. They organized many public rallies that were -r:tendedby hundreds and even thousandsof people,distributed .eafletsand other campaign materials, erected colorful and catchy :rllboards and utilized the Internet as an effective campaign :iatform. The DAP even adopted Sarawak's iconic bird, the 'Ubah', rornbill, asits mascot.Known as the mascotwas immensely eopular among the urban voters that its toys and t-shirts sold like :lot cakes.From the onset of the campaign,it was obvious that the )AP was going to make a huge impact in the election while the SUPPwas struggling to catch up. Furthermore, the DAP was able :o field young and capableprofessionals whereas the SUPPwas still relying on its old guards.

Unlike the urban voters, the rural Bumiputera still threw :heir support behind the ruling party mainly due to the strong appealof developmentalism,a strong senseof party identification, behaviorin :he relative strength of BN's campaign machinery fbacked by the s'ho had :ederal and state government agencies)and the rampant practice erstaying rf vote-buying.Nevertheless, the opposition managedto grab three ng many :ural seats[Pelagus, Krian and Ba'kelalan)which were largely due or Sarawak :o the Sng factof,the declining populariff of BN incumbents and rnterest :he strong appeal of opposition candidates.In the run-up to the ating his election,Pelagus was touted to be one of the hot seatswhen PRS :zation of Croppedits incumbent, ,whose family was very popular : it, these :nd influential in the area. Sng was dropped after the two-term n voters, rssemblymanwas sackedfrom PRSin 2009 for'insubordination'. lts near it rvas alleged that Larry Sng's father had financially backed an Independentcandidate, George Lagong, who eventuallydefeated the PRScandidate for Pelagus.Krian, on the other hand, saw the defeatof SPDP'sheavyweight Peter Nyarokwho was defendinghis seat for a record fifth term. There was generaldiscontent against the incumbent who had failed to bring substantialdevelopment to the area despite being an assistantminister and a four-term assemblyman.It was also alleged that the infighting among BN component parties in the area had led to the fall of the SPDP leader. In Ba'kelalan,the popularity of PKR candidateBaru Bian who was also the state party chief and well-known land rights lawyer becameone of the major factorsthat lured the OrangUlu votersto root for the opposition.The ruling party'sindecisiveness over its candidate in Ba'kelalanmade the task of retaining the seat even more difficult. Furthermore, PKR ran a strong and persuasivecampaign in Krian and Ba'kelalan,thus contributing to its surprise capture of the rural seats.The rest of the Bumiputera seats,howeve4, remained under BN's stronghold as the promises of developmentand money politics still had a strong influencein dictatingthe way the electoratevoted. Furthermore, the opposition was not ableto competewith the BN'scampaign machinery which had been stronglybacked by the federalgovernment led by Prime Minister Najib. Despite the unfair advantage,the Taib-led BN coalition lost a considerablenumber of seatsto the opposition. For once, Sarawak'simage as the BN's fixed deposit had been seriously challenged.This could be the turning point of Sarawak politics which has long been ruled by local strongmen who have dominatedthe stateand its rich resources.

Will the wind of change that has been blowing in the Peninsula finally reach Sarawak?Will the biggest state with the most number of parliamentaryseats contribute to the opposition's dream of taking over the federal government in the looming generalelection? This book, unfortunately,is not going to address among the local populace.It is argued that the size of Sarawa had expanded significantly due to colonial powers, particularl the Brookes who gradually took control of northwest of Borne, at the expenseof Brunei.Another impact of colonializationwas th phasingoutofthe Malayaristocratsas the dominantforcein Sarawal society.Through its divide and rule policy,the Brookescurtailed th power of the aristocrats but at the same time retained them as r tool to dominate the populace.As a result, the Malay aristocrat became titular leaders whose positions were further weakener by the challengeposed by the Muslim Melanauintelligentsias. Thr schismamong the Muslim Bumiputeraled to the emergenceof Ibar traditional leadersas the new force in Sarawakpolitics. The nativr rule,howevel was cut short when the Malay-ledfederal governmen intervened by installing Muslim Melanauintelligentsias as Sarawal ChiefMinisters. Although the axesof power had shifted,Sarawak ir still ruled by powerful individualswho JoelMigdal [1988) labeledar strongmen.The dual roles playedby the strongmen,as socialforcer and state representatives,have enabled the state [from the Brune Sultanate to the Federation of Malaysia) to dominate sarawak,r multi-racial population that spread acrossits rugged terrain. In thr last part of the chapte4,Faisal discusses the strategiesemployed b1 the strongmen in binding the population and eliminating potentia threats.It is argued that the strongmen rule will persist in Sarawal as long as the federal government maintains the existing systen and other contestingsocial forces remain dormant.

The second essay"The rgr0 Election and lts Significancetc SarawakPolitics" by StanleyBye Kadam-Kiai presents an interesting depiction of the first direct election in Sarawakand its impact on state politics particularly among the Dayak.According to Kadam- Kiai,the Dayakhad not been able to influencethe courseof politics in the state despite being the biggest ethnic group. Even when the community was able to lead the state during post-lndependence Sarawa[ the Dayak failed to consolidate and dominate state I politics.There be two major reasonsfor this, assertsKadam- I sarawak could Kiai,the political culture of the Dayak and the federal influence in frticularly the state.The Dayak'swillingness to give their votes to non-Dayak JofBorneo candidatesand non-Dayakpolitical parties, for example,had costs fn wasthe :hem dearly in the I970 election. Unlike the , the Dayak fnsarawak failed to realize the importance of working together to achieve ftaitea tne common goals for the community. The Malays,on the other hand, f them as a n'ere able to consolidate as made evident by the merger of two fnstocrats l*'eakened llalay dominated parties, Parti Negara Sarawak (PANAS) and BarisanRakyat Sarawak (BARIASA)in t966. faias.rhe Jati of Iban hre Kadam-Kiai further argues that the concept of party and native ffrr. electoralpolitics was relatively new to the Dayakat that time, thus in.ernment making them vulnerable to opposing forces. Political passions Sarawak ls and sentiments did exist among them, and in fact in certain is lsarawak crrcumstances,in a fiery manner; but they did not really know tauetedas I n'hat to do with it. Part of the reason for this is their unwillingness forces boal to compromise among themselvesand to accept Dayak leaders Ithe Brunei from different localities. The case in point is the role of riverine Sarawak's ! politics in creating animosity between two Iban political parties, ]nrin.In the Sarawak National Party ISNAP) and Parti PesakaAnak Sarawak pployed by TPESAKA).The SNAP-PESAKArivalry in the 1'970election became g potential one of the factors that contributed to PESAKAsfailure to retain lin Sarawak stateleadership which was taken over by the Bumiputera leaders. ing system The roles of independent Dayak candidates further thwarted the chancesof SNAPand PESAKA candidates in winning the seats.Apart lrcm looking at the impact of the L970 election on Dayak politics, fificance to politics iinteresting Xadam-Kiaialso analyzes the impact ofthe election on state I impact on :n general.He contendsthat another significant impact of the L970 eiection was the formation of a coalition government between 3to Kadam- ; of politics the Muslim-led Bumiputera party and the Chinese dominated F when the SUPBwherein the former played the leading role while the latter practice |ependence p'|"a1'edthe supporting role. The coalition transposed the inate state r: the federal level whereby United Malay National Organization