The disappointment over the lack of change in the constituency of Ba’kelalan is as widespread as it is palpable.
Perhaps sensing it, incumbent Baru Bian, the Sarawak PKR chief, is appealing to the religious sentiment of the evangelical Christians who make up 90 percent of the 7,375 registered voters.
The 58-year-old lawyer presents himself as “fair, clean and God-fearing” while telling the deeply religious Lun Bawang community of his efforts to settle native customary rights land issues.
But the people do not seem to be impressed. Whatever his good intentions and however hard he has worked, he has not delivered on his promises, according to the locals who yearn for development in their area.
In 2011, the controversy over the seizure of bibles using the word ‘Allah’ helped Bian to beat his 43-year-old nephew Willie Liau of BN by 473 votes.
There is no controversy this time, and Liau, also a lawyer, is driving home the point that you have to be with the government to get things done.
So who has authored this piece of ‘objective reporting’?
Ah, the government news agency Bernama! That makes sense.
The inhabitants of Ba’kelalan can vote for whom they like, whatever the objective news agency writer finds “palpable”.
But, they ought to bear in mind that years of being run directly by BN did them no good at all and that if BN continue to run the state then things will continue as before.
What possible reason could there be to imagine otherwise?