SIBU: Sarawak Democratic Action Party (DAP) chairman, Chong Chieng Jen has appointed Sibu MP, Oscar Ling as DAP Sarawak 15th general election (GE15) campaign director.
This was revealed by Ling when expressing his gratitude to DAP for its trust in appointing him to the important post in a statement yesterday (June 9).
Ling shared that as the campaign director, he would be responsible for formulating and deploying DAP’s Sarawak campaign mechanism and strategy.
He pointed out that the GE15 would not be an easy one for the party as seen from the state elections in Sarawak, Malacca and Johor.
“It can also be seen that after the Sheraton Move and the impact of the epidemic, many people are beginnnng to be disappointed in politics and believed that politicians had changed jobs.
“The culture of voting every five years is also meaningless to the people,” he said.
Ling added that because of the people’s concerns about the COVID-19 epidemic, the number of those who came out to vote in these three state elections was much lower than before and the turnout rates were low.
He is even more worried that the current inflation will have a serious impact on the Malaysian economy, which will further affect the voter turnout because everyone is busy with their lives and has no time to take into account the political development and general elections in Malaysia.
On Undi18 which would add 5.8 million new voters, he said if these first-time voters were not keen to vote, it would further reduce the percentage of turnout.
He believes that voting in the current general election may only be maintained at around 50% in urban constituencies, but the turnout rate in rural areas will be high because of the proliferation of money politics, such as incentives to encourage voters to come out to vote.
Ling acknowledged that in the upcoming general election, DAP would be faced with many challenges and difficulties such as how to restore the people’s confidence in Malaysia’s democracy and then arouse the enthusiasm of young people to vote.
“In addition, due to the epidemic, the number of people returning to vote from overseas will definitely drop sharply.
“To appeal to everyone to go home to vote, we must show everyone the urgency of the country needing a vote in your hand to make changes,” he said.
Ling, however, expressed his confidence in meeting the challenges of the next general election.
Although it is not easy for the future of the country, no matter how difficult it is and how unfavourable the environment is for the DAP, he deeply believes that as long as the public interests are there, the party will be accepted by the people.
