Greeting to all,
It seems that I have been away for ages, from the 13th of February till now, a total of 29 days.
I was the candidate of DAP for the
parliamentary seat P. 211 Lanang in the just concluded 12th general election. I started off my campaign immediately after the Parliament was dissolved with the visiting of the interior rural area as 22 % of the voters live there, they are predominantly Dayaks communities.
After the nomination day which fell on the 24th February 2008, our campaign moved to the urban area. With ceramah or meet the people session every night in Sibu. The crowd was getting bigger and bigger as the polling day draws nearer. The crowd in Sibu was in the thousands although we experienced heavy rainfall during the whole 12 days meet-the-people session. The crowd for the final night was in the proximity of 6000 although it rained heavily that night, the 7th 0f March 2008. The climax was reached as we lighted thousands of candle and sang “A better tomorrow” in the rain.
The DAP campaign theme “Just change it” was well presented by all our speakers with the support of the theme song. We urged the people in Sibu to embrace change as the wind of change was spreading in the peninsular with the Indian, Malay and Chinese all crying for change. The 4 years rule under Abdullah’s Umno was a total failure with rising crimes, high inflation, judicial rot, corruption and mismanagements, rising racial tension, unfair distribution of wealth, unjust treatments of education allocation and of course worsened economy. We were sure that the messages reached the people who were at our ceramahs, but the major print media did not cover the “essence” of our speeches. Unfortunately, internet campaign was not even used although those more technology-savvy did visited You-tube for a view of the campaign events
Initially, we were aiming at 1+1 in Sibu area, which are we can take Lanang while having a chance to close-in on P. 212 Sibu. Our state chairman, Richard Wong Ho Leng was optimistic that DAP Sarawak can deliver 3+1 in Sarawak and told our Secretary-General about our commitment to break the BN’s 2/3 majority in the Parliament.
The 12th general election was truthfully the dirtiest election so far with money changing hands openly and blatant disregard for laws and orders. There were rumors that the SPR official and local authorities’ employees were involved in vote-buying during office hour and the words from the rural district all confirmed that “agents” of certain political party distributing money in the long houses with promises that if certain candidate was elected, every “pintu” would be given additional RM 300 after the election. There were even rumors that all the hawkers in Sibu (thousands of them) were entitled to certain “allowance” for them to turn up on polling day. Many complaint that theirs were claimed by others and thus were unhappy that they were being “ripped-off”.
I was told by one DAP member that one pastor went on the stage of the church in Sibu and openly called for the sons and daughters of the GOD to vote for one BN’s candidate as he donated generously to the church fund! What a shame that was not only to the Christian faith and to the people of Sibu, I am sure that that was not the message from the God but rather the pastor have been consumed by the devil. I have no idea how the believers reacted to the call by that pastor but it seems that those who were there did not openly condemned that most “devious” call from the servant of the God.
Postal votes in the thousand were distributed and the results showed that I only secured 14 out of the 1104 votes while my opponent secured 960 votes. There were some righteous ones who rather spoiled the votes (59) while 101 would rather not be involved by exercising their right not to cast the “dirty” ballot papers.
On top of all these, my opponent Datuk Tiong Thai King is a multi-millionaire whose family controls the Rimbunan Hijau, the world largest timber logging company. They also control the Chinese press with Sin Chew, Nanyang, Ming Pau etc under their belts. The connection of the RH group of companies and the many thousands under their pay-roll made them one of the most formidable political families in the central region of Sarawak. I have friends and relatives working for them and knew how they “reward” their employees to vote for Datuk Tiong. Many told me that they have to vote for him because they are afraid of the consequence of not voting for their “boss”.
Sibu roads in flood prone areas were upgraded and lamp posts installed in areas that were neglected before the election. Workers worked round the hours to make sure that roads were sealed within a-day; many were trapped during the peak hours such as after school and after office hours. Fortunately for the BN, there was no flood during the campaign period but unfortunately for the peoples the clogged drains were left unattended.
Where were the SPR/EC peoples? Where were the ACA peoples? It seems that the SPR workers (government employees) chose not to carry out their duties by not knowing what were going on and a fair and Bersih election was certainly not in their minds. The ACA was the sleeping beauty who slept during the whole duration of the campaign period.
The outcomes on the 8th March 2008 were history now. I lost the Lanang parliamentary by 4866 votes. The 1st string represents the most senior voters while the last string represents the youngest voters. You would note that the elders chose the BN while the youth support the DAP from the results. Also note that the Chinese urban voted in favor of the DAP while the majority of rural voted for the BN.
I might have lost the battle in Lanang in 2008, but I am sure the people have realized that my personal campaign theme “Change you can believe in” have touched the hearts of thousands especially the youth. With the tsunami of change hitting the peninsular Malaysia and the oppositions now governing 5 states (Penang,Selangor, Kedah, Perak and Kelantan) and in control of more than 1/3 representative in the Dewan Rakyats, my vision and call of “change” will hit Sibu and Sarawak soon, most probably in the next state election.
God bless Malaysia and God bless Sarawakian. Hidup rakyat and Hidup DAP!
David Wong
DAP Sarawak publicity sec.
12-03-2008
It seems that I have been away for ages, from the 13th of February till now, a total of 29 days.
I was the candidate of DAP for the
parliamentary seat P. 211 Lanang in the just concluded 12th general election. I started off my campaign immediately after the Parliament was dissolved with the visiting of the interior rural area as 22 % of the voters live there, they are predominantly Dayaks communities.After the nomination day which fell on the 24th February 2008, our campaign moved to the urban area. With ceramah or meet the people session every night in Sibu. The crowd was getting bigger and bigger as the polling day draws nearer. The crowd in Sibu was in the thousands although we experienced heavy rainfall during the whole 12 days meet-the-people session. The crowd for the final night was in the proximity of 6000 although it rained heavily that night, the 7th 0f March 2008. The climax was reached as we lighted thousands of candle and sang “A better tomorrow” in the rain.
The DAP campaign theme “Just change it” was well presented by all our speakers with the support of the theme song. We urged the people in Sibu to embrace change as the wind of change was spreading in the peninsular with the Indian, Malay and Chinese all crying for change. The 4 years rule under Abdullah’s Umno was a total failure with rising crimes, high inflation, judicial rot, corruption and mismanagements, rising racial tension, unfair distribution of wealth, unjust treatments of education allocation and of course worsened economy. We were sure that the messages reached the people who were at our ceramahs, but the major print media did not cover the “essence” of our speeches. Unfortunately, internet campaign was not even used although those more technology-savvy did visited You-tube for a view of the campaign events
Initially, we were aiming at 1+1 in Sibu area, which are we can take Lanang while having a chance to close-in on P. 212 Sibu. Our state chairman, Richard Wong Ho Leng was optimistic that DAP Sarawak can deliver 3+1 in Sarawak and told our Secretary-General about our commitment to break the BN’s 2/3 majority in the Parliament.
The 12th general election was truthfully the dirtiest election so far with money changing hands openly and blatant disregard for laws and orders. There were rumors that the SPR official and local authorities’ employees were involved in vote-buying during office hour and the words from the rural district all confirmed that “agents” of certain political party distributing money in the long houses with promises that if certain candidate was elected, every “pintu” would be given additional RM 300 after the election. There were even rumors that all the hawkers in Sibu (thousands of them) were entitled to certain “allowance” for them to turn up on polling day. Many complaint that theirs were claimed by others and thus were unhappy that they were being “ripped-off”.
I was told by one DAP member that one pastor went on the stage of the church in Sibu and openly called for the sons and daughters of the GOD to vote for one BN’s candidate as he donated generously to the church fund! What a shame that was not only to the Christian faith and to the people of Sibu, I am sure that that was not the message from the God but rather the pastor have been consumed by the devil. I have no idea how the believers reacted to the call by that pastor but it seems that those who were there did not openly condemned that most “devious” call from the servant of the God.
Postal votes in the thousand were distributed and the results showed that I only secured 14 out of the 1104 votes while my opponent secured 960 votes. There were some righteous ones who rather spoiled the votes (59) while 101 would rather not be involved by exercising their right not to cast the “dirty” ballot papers.
On top of all these, my opponent Datuk Tiong Thai King is a multi-millionaire whose family controls the Rimbunan Hijau, the world largest timber logging company. They also control the Chinese press with Sin Chew, Nanyang, Ming Pau etc under their belts. The connection of the RH group of companies and the many thousands under their pay-roll made them one of the most formidable political families in the central region of Sarawak. I have friends and relatives working for them and knew how they “reward” their employees to vote for Datuk Tiong. Many told me that they have to vote for him because they are afraid of the consequence of not voting for their “boss”.
Sibu roads in flood prone areas were upgraded and lamp posts installed in areas that were neglected before the election. Workers worked round the hours to make sure that roads were sealed within a-day; many were trapped during the peak hours such as after school and after office hours. Fortunately for the BN, there was no flood during the campaign period but unfortunately for the peoples the clogged drains were left unattended.
Where were the SPR/EC peoples? Where were the ACA peoples? It seems that the SPR workers (government employees) chose not to carry out their duties by not knowing what were going on and a fair and Bersih election was certainly not in their minds. The ACA was the sleeping beauty who slept during the whole duration of the campaign period.
The outcomes on the 8th March 2008 were history now. I lost the Lanang parliamentary by 4866 votes. The 1st string represents the most senior voters while the last string represents the youngest voters. You would note that the elders chose the BN while the youth support the DAP from the results. Also note that the Chinese urban voted in favor of the DAP while the majority of rural voted for the BN.
I might have lost the battle in Lanang in 2008, but I am sure the people have realized that my personal campaign theme “Change you can believe in” have touched the hearts of thousands especially the youth. With the tsunami of change hitting the peninsular Malaysia and the oppositions now governing 5 states (Penang,Selangor, Kedah, Perak and Kelantan) and in control of more than 1/3 representative in the Dewan Rakyats, my vision and call of “change” will hit Sibu and Sarawak soon, most probably in the next state election.
God bless Malaysia and God bless Sarawakian. Hidup rakyat and Hidup DAP!
David Wong
DAP Sarawak publicity sec.
12-03-2008
10 comments:
not only money politic but there were two bas-tards around trying to kill you till end in the earth.
Don't lost heart. You will have a chance again in 2 years. 2 years is a short time. You will in the next election get plenty of help from West Malaysia DAP and PKR. You will be there at the DUN in 2 years. Want to bet?
Sdr David, to have left the blog out in the cold for about a month is not encouraged. You must update regularly and have a team of IT personnel to help you. You can start with your own family. Your child can post one or two photos to keep surfers informed. A sentence with a photo says a thousand words. The blogosphere is important and politicians, more so from the DAP, will not be excused for not being IT savvy.
Wong Ho Leng
Saudara David,
It is good to read from you again. Anyway, regarding the Pastor who told his congregation to vote for BN, well, please remember the part that the Bible tells us to choose between God and money. Then the Bible also talks about money being the root of all evils. So what we have now is Sibu still being ruled by darkness. We will not know what God's plans are for Sibu. Unless we are gifted. Therefore for the time being while it looks like we are the losers, yet it must not stop us from praying. On another note, there are Christians out there; good, clean Christians who believe that BN is God's chosen. So God gave Penang to DAP. God gave Kelantan to PAS. God gave Sarawak to Barisan Nasional. God cannot be wrong, can He ?
Sibu has more older folks. One thing about older folks is that they have lived through experiences and experiences told them that it is better to vote for the Barisan Nasional. Robert Lau is more than 50 years old. Tiong Thai King is more than 50 years old. So it is no wonder that the older folks believe in them. Probably it is the word
" respect ". Probably it is the word " believe in older folks ". Probably it is the word
" traditional ". Older folks tend to think of the young as doing things at the spur of the moment. Therefore the youths have to prove to the elders that they can be trusted.
As for the roads, you can see it is flooded again.
The ACA would only act if it serves them well. Therefore there is no integrity in this agency at all.
I saw you at the airport from far away. Just to let you know. Not sure if it is you but I am quite sure it is you.
Yah, i went to Kuching as we had a state committee meeting today and returned home this afternoon.
I was informed by many that Sibu is being flooded again while i was in Kuching Airport. I could only smile back to their concern although deep down i was truely saddened that we have to live through all these on a monthly basic now.
But politics is more than just flood and road and religion. It is more to what is the road ahead for this country and the peoples, espcially the minorities in a multi-racial society.
It is the mindset of the people that carries more weight than the hardwares and all the infrastructures of the country. If we refuse "change" because we wantto keep the tradition then the BN shall forever held us for ransom. Sad, isn't it? Especially for the generations to come.
Thanks for your concern, i shall continue to serve to the best of my capacity. Remember our goal? To be the government of the day when the people are ready!
Regards,
DW
I don't think you lost in the election. I believe you had gained lots of experiences & wisdom from it. Hence, you will become a better person - someone whom the Sibu public will learn to respect & fully support - I hope in the next election.
God Bless!
Well, we are under Barisan Nasional for 44 years and counting. We are so used to Barisan Nasional. Everything is so Barisan Nasional. Sarawak has to look at West Malaysia and to see how the DAP there is doing because there are lessons for the DAP here to learn.
A lot of the Bumiputras in Sarawak support Barisan Nasional. So DAP cannot be seen as a Chinese political party. It is this reason also that PKR has its' own supporters. As well as PAS.
Money is a very easy tool.
Yes. We will never know. But if and when the time comes, you all will be ready to take up the challenges.
Thank you for your feedback. We must admit that we have not done enough in the bumi areas and no thanks goes to the English and Bahasa Malaysia press either as they refused to publish our news and press statements that touches the interests of the bumi.
We have spoken out not for a single race but for all the Malaysian regardless of their ethnic, cultural or religious backgrounds. We talk aboyt equal and just and fair treatment for all instead of just for the Chinese.
Our Aduns spoke about the dilemas of the Dayak community but was rebuked by the Iban leaders of the BN, one such person is Afred Jabu whho told the DAP that we do not know the ibans enough to speak out for them. So, who is the mouth piece of the Dayaks if we have leaders such as those in the BN?
Not to worry, we are ready to take on the challenge and we will make all the necessary arrangement to change our image and would show our upmost determination to be the "chioced" multi-racial party that Sarawakians can trust and depend on.
DW
MCA's Ng Yen Yen had met a group of pastors and told them that if they don't vote for BN, Chineses in Malaysia will have a difficult time.
Ng yen yen can do that as she is a politician from the BN but not a pastor as he is the servant of the God.
It makes me sick to hear that politicain uses the Church as the platform for their individual's greed and lust. It is sinful for the servant of the GOD to allow himself to be used by the Sinner such as the politician.
The judgement day will come and these people will be judged by the God himself.
True believer
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