(Penang, Thursday): When I said that if the DAP wins in the Sungai Bakap by-election, it would be akin to a Richter 7 political earthquake, I was trying to show the impossiblity of winning in Sungai Bakap by-election on November 8.
I do not expect another Teluk Intan in Sungai Bakap, in winning a seat which nobody had expected the DAP to win. However, even if Sungai Bakap cannot be another Teluk Intan, then it should be a better Kidurong.
In the Kidurong state assembly by-election in Sarawak last Sunday (October 26), the DAP lost by 384 votes. However, the Kidurong by-election result was one of those rare occasions where the defeated party felt elated while the victorious party felt defeated.
When the by-election results were known at the Kidurong by-election counting centre after the voting, the DAP leaders, members and supporters were smiling while the SUPP and Barisan Nasional leaders were in a black dirty mood, for they know that while they had won the seat, the DAP had won a great moral victory.
In fact, the Barisan Nasional Director of Operations in the Kidurong by-election, the SUPP Secretary-General and Sarawak Assistant Minister for Industrial Development, Sim Kheng Hui publicly expressed his disappointment with the majority secured by the winning Barisan Nasional candidate in the by-election, saying: "In fact, we 'lost' even though we recaptured the seat". With the Sarawak Chief Minister leading the by-election campaign and the entire Sarawak State Cabinet virtually camping in the constituency, the Barisan Nasional had expected to win by a majority of over 3,000 votes, but could only get a slim 384-vote majority.
If Sungai Bakap cannot be a Teluk Intan, it should be a better Kidurong, slashing the Barisan Nasional majority of 5,327 in the April 1995 general elections to send a clear signal of the people's unhappiness, frustrations and disappointments that the Barisan Nasional had not appreciated the unprecedented landslide victory which the people had given to it in the last general elections.
(30/10/97)