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Ngieng lists four challenges to Sarawak Chinese
Political Secretary to the Chief Minister Daniel ngieng Kiong An sigled out four areas that would pose serious challenges to the Sarawak Chinese in preparation for their future.
He listed tem as the country’s multi-racial background, the coalition government, the discrepancies in constituency re-delineation every eight to ten years and the coming of UMNO to Sarawak.
Sarawak, Ngieng pointed out, is a diverse society with over 20 different races.
He said, “Each race has its own history and customs, speak its own language and profess different religions.
“No one race forms the single major group of over 50 percent. The largest group, Ibans, constitutes about 30 percent, Chinese 28 percent and Malay/Melanaus 27 percent.
“This racial composition therefore does not allow any one race to dominate Sarawak politics.”
As Sarawak Chinese, ngieng reminded them to work closely with other races for their future depend on their ability to seek racial harmony and political stability.
“We must therefore be moderate in our approach so as to accommodate all groups. We must focus on the overall interest of Sarawak without losing sight to the very community that we represent,” he added.
Ngieng was one of the speaker of a public forum organized by the SUPP Sibu Branch Special function Unit recently.
On the coalition government, he also mentioned that since no one race constitutes a simple majority, nor does any aone political party really dominates in the Government, this is a real challenge for us to press for a meaningful political partnership.
“We must assist each other so as to maintain a political balance such that the political coalition in Sarawak will not be dominated by one political party in the government,” he said.
Out of 62 stat assemblymen in the State, there are only 11 seats with Chinese forming the majority voters.
He said this 11:62 ratio or about 18 percent do not reflect the racial composition of Chinese population of 28 percent.
He said that since SUPP ws allocated these 11 state constituencies as Chinese-based seats, in some way, SUPP’s political influence is very much restricted to urban areas.
He said SUPP has been fighting hard to reach out and try to gain a wider foothold in the rural areas so as to broaden its base but it is quite difficult to achieve that.
On the constituency re-delineation, Ngieng mentioned that our law provides that constituency re-delineation exercise should be carried out every once eight to ten years.
From past experiences, he said the Election Commission seemed to favour the rural sector during the re-delineation exercise and in effect, rural voters have been given higher weightage by comparison with the urban voters.
For instance, he said Belaga, with a total voters of about 5,000, is more or less four times the weightage as that of Pahlawan which has over 23, 000 voters.
He said, “Under the parliamentary democracy of one-person-one vote principle, this is not too fair. Moreover, with the concentration of Chinese in the urban sector, this situation poses a real challenge to SUPP in maintaining an effctive political leverage in times to come.”
Besides, Ngieng said the growth rate of the Chinese population is among the lowest in Sarawak.
“About 20 years ago, our ratio was over 30 percent. Today, it drops to 28 percent. With the present growth rate, the Chinese population shall fall to below 20 percent in another 15 to 20 years’ time. If the political strength is the number game, SUPP really has an uphill battle in safe-guarding our representation force in the government,” he said.
With the migration of more Bumiputera to the urban sector, the coming on-stream of Sibu Jaya township and Kampong Bahagia Jaya in Sungei Teku, all these may see the emergence of more bumiputera sets in future re-delineation exervice which may be racially constituted in such a ration that it shall be outside SUPP’s so-called right of claim, he stressed.
Touching on UMNO sets her foothold here, he said the political equilibrium in party alignment would be disturbed as by then, MCA and Gerakan would also extend their wings here.
He added, “Still, at present stage, I believe that Sarawak parties could better serve the local interest…Federal politics has always been more racially charged and divided. The consequences of UMNO’s entry may also see racial politics taking a central stage in Sarawak. This is contrary to our efforts to promote moderation and multi-racialism.
“State autonomy may be challenged. Under the pretext of federation and national unity, it shall be difficult to refute at times theie demand for opening up Sarawak totally.
“We may be forced to give up our autonomy on immigration. Of course, all these are not exactly Chinese issues but these are the overall development of Sarawak that shall affect us in one way or another. |
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Datuk Wong Soon Koh