They came with flattery and promises of much needed investment. They used their control of the state and the media to bombard the city with propaganda and of course

Flying to Freedom

THREATS that if it did not vote for BN they would make sure the region was punished. But, despite all this, the people of Sibu recognised their real interests; they made a stand for Sarawak and voted out the BN crony candidate.  ROLL ON the State Elections!!

Sibu is a powerful city.  BN needs Sibu and the people there know that instead of the threatened punishments they will now receive more flattery and attention as BN tries to win them back.  But, like so many others in Sarawak, Sibu has learnt all it needs to know about the cheating and corruption of Taib Mahmud’s government.  For 30 years he has managed the country purely for his own financial benefit – and destroyed so much in the process.  His promises mean nothing.

The corruption surrounding this election was in classic style and over-reached any previous scale.  The excellent Malaysian monitoring group, Mafrel, has compiled some figures:  almost 20 ministers, led by the Prime Minister, took turns to make financial allocations or to promise rewards to Sibu during the election campaign.  This abuse of proper procedures and misuse of  government money in an attempt to buy elections clearly violates the Election Offences Act of 1954 and the Anti-Corruption Act 1997.  However, of course, with the Government we currently have, neither the Election Commission(SPR) nor the anti-corruption agency(MACC) bothered to take action over these outrages or even to reprimand them.

But, even if the guardians of the law have been found wanting, the people of Sibu have not.  They saw through the lies and voted accordingly.  They managed to eject BN, even though the party was up to its usual tricks many times over in trying to prevent a free and fair ballot.  Again Mafrel has collected the evidence.  The organsation found that thousands of voters had been moved out of their usual polling areas without being informed – this old trick is designed to lure people to go to the ‘wrong’ polling station so that they are prevented from casting their votes.  There was also a  highly suspiscious last minute alteration of the turn out figures from a believable 59% to a phenominal 70% – we offer  no bets on who that extra 11% of voters (discovered by the returning officers at the last minute)voted for!  But, of course, it will be hard to prove what happened at the count, because independent monitors were excluded.  But, despite all this, Sibu still managed to vote out BN!

So much for the 200MR bribes being openly offered by BN to each and every voter of Sibu.

BN need to learn that the old ways will not work any more.   Their old leader with his tired, corrupt practices can no longer control the voters in a modern Sarawak.  His crony newspapers all did their work for BN, but it was not good enough.  The voters of Sarawak can make their own opinions and they want change and the end to corruption.

Well done Sibu.  Now the rest of Sarawak must follow your example.