The Malaysian Insight

WITH three days to polling in the Sandakan by-election, Pakatan Harapan sources have admitted that the ruling coalition may not get as convincing a victory as it did in the 14th general election last year.

The late incumbent, Stephen Wong, garnered a 10,000-vote majority in the election last year. The Sabah DAP chairman died on March 28, triggering a by-election. He first wrested the federal seat from Barisan Nasional in 2013, winning by just 1,000 votes.

DAP sources cited the absence of Chinese youth among the voters as one of the reasons they are not confident of an easy time at the polls on Saturday.

“The young people, especially young Chinese voters, are not in Sandakan. They are not here because they don’t want to be earning minimum wage,” a source said, referring to the trend of youngsters leaving the town for better job opportunities elsewhere.

“They are university leavers. Many have migrated to the city, or to major cities like Kuala Lumpur to look for better paying jobs.” 

Sandakan on the east coast of Sabah is seen as a DAP stronghold due to its large Chinese community. 

But voters who live out of town may not find a trip home to vote worth making as the outcome of the election will not change the balance of power in parliament.

The seat has more than 40,000 eligible voters, 51% of which are Chinese, followed by Sabah Bumiputera (26%), Malay (16%) and others (7%). 

“I expect only 35% of the more than 20,000 Chinese voters to be here to vote this Saturday. This means DAP will have to depend on the votes of other races.

“We need 80% of their votes to be safe and retain the Sandakan seat,” the party source said at the Sandakan DAP office in Bandar Lee Tat, today.

DAP’s dilemma, however, is that the other races in Sabah do not look favourably upon the Chinese-majority party.

As a component of the Pakatan Harapan federal government, it bears the blame for unemployment issues, lack of affordable housing, and lack of assistance for the fishing and agricultural communities in the Sandakan area. 

“There is no more living allowance for the fishermen, while PH has not yet fulfilled its promise of affordable homes that people can rent-to-own.”

Sentiments on the ground seem to indicate that non-Chinese voters would likely go for DAP’s main rival in the by-election, Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), even though it is a state opposition party.

DAP’s Vivian Wong, the daughter of the late Stephen, will face PBS’ Linda Tsen and three independent candidates. 

Tsen has past experience as the Batu Sapi MP.

Another problem with the PH campaign here is that it is raising mostly national issues in its discourses with the townsfolk.

This is to be expected, given that Sandakan is a federal seat but such topics are of less interest to local Sandakan residents more concerned about bread-and-butter issues, another PH source said.

“Of course things like the 1Malaysia Development Board affects all Malaysians, but this is Sandakan, people here want good jobs and to own homes.

“For example, the abolishment of the goods and services tax and its replacement, the sales and services tax have yet to bring down the prices of good.” – May 8, 2019.