‘Blue waves versus political tsunami’: Sarawak and the 2008 Malaysian General Election.
Neilson Ilan Mersat, (2009) ‘Blue waves versus political tsunami’: Sarawak and the 2008 Malaysian General Election. AKADEMIKA, 77 . pp. 113-132. ISSN 0126-5008
Official URL: http://www.ukm.my/~penerbit/akademika
Abstract
The
2008 general election was a disastrous outing for the National Front
(Barisan Nasional). The party not only failed to retain two third of the
seats in the national parliament but lost five states to the
opposition. The defeat was attributed to strong opposition politics
which had created ‘political tsunami’ of sorts and swept across several
states which were formerly BN’s stronghold.
The defeat in several states also marked the end of BN’s hegemony. It
begs the question of whether BN is still relevant. Ironically Sarawak
remained a bastion of BN and the party won all the parliamentary seats
except one. BN’s win in Sarawak was likened to a ‘blue waves’ (blue is
the colour for BN’s flags) that like ‘political tsunami’ in Peninsular
Malaysia had swept away all the opposition candidates except for Bandar
Kuching. However, despite the big win in term of seats the support for
BN in the urban areas declined greatly with some of its candidates won
with a slim majority. This article examines the contestation between
‘blue waves’ and ‘political tsunami’ in Sarawak during the 2008
elections. The contestation is examined in the contexts of ‘politics of
developmentalism’, which really impacted the electoral outcome in the
rural areas. ‘Politics of developmentalism’ is put into practice by
using government projects as patronage tools for sustaining and securing
political support. This strategy works well especially in the rural
areas where politics is still very much driven by the urge to fulfill
basic needs.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | Election; politics of development; patronage; Native Customary Rights; opposition pact |
| Journal: | AKADEMIKA |
| ID Code: | 609 |
| Deposited By: | Mr Fazli Nafiah - |
| Deposited On: | 14 Mar 2011 14:57 |
| Last Modified: | 11 Aug 2011 15:40 |
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