KUCHING: Sociopolitical analyst Associate Prof Dr Awang Azman Awang Pawi of Universiti Malaya (UM) is of the view that the results of the Sabah state election (PRN) will not have much bearing on the upcoming Sarawak PRN.
He said that this was because Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) was seen to be better prepared to face the current political situation.
“The experience of being the opposition for 22 months has made GPS more prepared to face any challenges that occur in current politics,” he said when contacted by New Sarawak Tribune.
He said that after being with Perikatan Nasional (PN), GPS was strong in terms of its confidence, even more so after successfully getting State Sales Tax (SST) amounting to about RM3 billion.
“The people are more confident of the ability of GPS to govern the state of Sarawak.”
Awang Azman opined that the outcome of the Sabah PRN may only have an effect on slight changes in political alignment in terms of the focus of issues that need to be highlighted for Sarawak’s PRN, the suitability of using local party logos, and campaign and voting standard operating procedures (SOPs) due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“As for the rest, GPS is prepared to face Sarawak PRN which is expected to be held at the end of this year.”
Meanwhile, political analyst Dr Lee Kuok Tiung, who is also a senior lecturer at Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), pointed out that Sabah politics are different from Sarawak politics.
“You cannot copy and paste Sabah’s model in Sarawak. That would be a very misleading analysis or interpretation.”
However, he said it could not be denied that the opposition in Sarawak may use Sabah’s election outcome as part of their election campaign topic.
“If Parti Warisan Sabah(Warisan) Plus wins, they will say ‘you see, Sabah dares to change — we Sarawakians should dare to change too’.”
