KUCHING, May 4 — Banking on the “Team Adenan” factor, SUPP has been pleading with the Chinese to give them a chance and Batu Kawah voters appear to at least be willing to hear them out.
The campaign trail of the incumbent Barisan Nasional (BN) component party led by Dr Sim Kui Hian in the city, seemingly shadowing that of main rival DAP, has managed to match the crowd size at DAP ceramahs in locations considered to be DAP strongholds.
One former DAP supporter at a recent SUPP rally in Batu Kawah, who only wanted to go by Lee, said he found Dr Sim compelling in his struggle and may consider backing him for the May 7 election.
“I think I’m going to give Dr Sim a chance. He seems very dedicated. Anyway, we’ve given DAP five years in Batu Kawah and there hasn’t been much change, so why not give it back to SUPP, who has the backing of the chief minister?” the 50-year-old businessman told Malay Mail Online when approached.
Another new SUPP supporter, retired government officer Patrick Ting, 64, said that he believed Dr Sim was genuine. Long-time SUPP supporter WIlliam Lee, a retiree aged 63, concurred and said he noticed that young people were paying SUPP more attention this time around.
“This is good, because I think Dr Sim is genuine, and I believe he will try his best to deliver on his promises,” Lee said.
Dr Sim, whose name is currently synonymous with SUPP to many supporters, contested for the Pending seat in the 2011 state elections, but lost overwhelmingly by a 6,780-vote majority against DAP’s Violet Yong. This year, he’s contesting the Batu Kawah seat in the Sarawak state election as party president.
Travelling with their mobile stage armed with a live band and their signature bee mascots to entertain the crowd, SUPP has been pulling out all the stops when it came to showmanship to win back what was formerly their turf just two state elections ago.
Dr Sim himself takes a motivational speaker approach in his speeches complete with a catchphrase of “kita tengok sahaja” (we’ll just wait and see) and a group of backup chanters made up of the Sarawak BN youth Armada, who have apparently memorised key points in his speech to provide applause and laughter on cue.
In his speeches, he also uses DAP’s “Ubah” (change) theme against them, calling on voters to revert their support to BN.
“It has been five years under them, and we ‘tengok sahaja’. Enough is enough. ‘Ini kalilah kita mesti ubah’ (This time we must make a change),” he said at a rally at a food court in Batu Kawah last Sunday, lifting the DAP theme verbatim.
The spiel however received a mixed reaction from the crowd, where those in the first few rows cheered on, while others seemed unsure of how to react.
Nevertheless, the rally garnered slightly over a thousand people, and was held just 500 metres away from where DAP held its own rally the night prior featuring Penang Chief Minister and DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng that had garnered an estimated crowd of 1,500.
Observers said the energy for opposition support may have decreased, but voting patterns were likely to remain.
Unimas associate professor Dr Jeniri Amir said that rallies in general were a poor indicator of voter sentiment, noting that they did not indicate an increase in SUPP support and that the smaller crowd size at DAP talks was due to the lack of prominent figures, since many opposition leaders have been barred entry into the state.
“Don’t be deceived by the size of the crowd, because you cannot compare it with 2011, when the issues talked about were really hot and very sensational issues that voters felt strongly about,” he told Malay Mail Online when contacted.
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) associate professor Dr Mohd Faisal Syam Abdol Hazis concurred, saying most voters have already made up their mind even before the campaigning period.
“These campaigning are really only to convince the remaining 15 per cent who are undecided,” he told Malay Mail Online when contacted.
“The opposition supporters are just not as pumped up as they were in 2011, when the call for change was more intense when Tun Abdul Taib Mahmud was still the chief minister,” he added.
SUPP will be contesting in 13 constituencies in the 11th Sarawak state elections, a drop from its 19 traditionally contested seats. In the 2011 state elections, SUPP had only secured six out of the 19 contested seats.
Dr Sim himself is in a three-cornered fight in Batu Kawah. He is facing DAP incumbent Christina Chiew and an independent candidate, Liu Thian Leong.
