The experience of a good and strong working team is the secret to being a successful Parliamentarian.
The secret is manifested in the Petra Jaya and Santubong parliamentary candidates who represent Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof and Datuk Seri Nancy Sukri respectively, thus putting their names in the comfort zone to win in the 15th general election (GE15).
These two parliamentary seats are actually Malay-dominated areas and are located in the centre and suburbs of Kuching.
Traditionally, the two areas are strongholds of Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), a GPS component party and have never fallen into the hands of the opposition, even during the hot politics of the Ming Court in 1987 or the 1998 Reformist era.
All three state constituencies under the Petra Jaya parliamentary seat – Tupong, Samariang and Satok are controlled and represented by PBB. And this strengthens Fadillah, who is senior vice president of PBB.
Fadillah’s move to the Petra Jaya constituency was actually not easy at first. He was the PBB Tupong Youth chief when he was nominated for the seat, to replace Tan Sri Dr Sulaiman Daud in 1999.
In his first general election, Fadillah garnered 18,236 votes to win with a majority of 12,816 votes, against the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) candidate, Wan Zainal Abidin Wan Sanusi.
On November 19, Fadillah will be defending this seat for the fifth time. This makes him one of the most senior in the list of candidates revealed by GPS.
In this election, he is challenged by Pakatan Harapan candidate Sopian Julaihi and Parti Sedar candidate Datuk Othman Abdillah.
The campaign pattern of all three is quite interesting, with Fadillah, even though an ‘old-timer’ prefer a friendly tour movement, especially from one operation room to another at the branch level, visiting suraus and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and various focal points.
He even played sports, had fun and sang with the people in the areas he visited; something that was difficult for him to do before, due to his heavy duty as a Senior Minister of the Federal government.
His opponent, Sopian choses to campaign by delivering a speech on a four-wheel drive equipped with loudspeakers while Othman uses social media to announce a proposal to deposit RM100 into the account of every citizen of Petra Jaya every month – if he wins.
For the record, the number of voters in Petra Jaya is 109,670 people; with 78,987 of them Malay, 14,632 Chinese and 8,317 Iban.
From a demographic point of view, Tupong has the most voters, 51,590, followed by Samariang (37,847) and Satok (20,133).
In this context, there is a big question among the people of Petra Jaya -does Fadillah stands a chance to become the first Deputy Prime Minister from Sarawak, looking at the offer made by Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Harapan? The constituents are praying for this to happen.
Hence, it is not surprising that many expect him to win big in this GE15.
Meanwhile, the Santubong parliamentary seat this time opens the door to 79,453 voters to decide who among its three candidates will be elected.
In 2018, this seat was dominated by Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar (GPS) who garnered 26,379 votes, compared to his challenger, Mohamad Fidzuan Zaidi (PH-Amanah), who only obtained 6,893 votes.
The large majority of 19,485 votes is a ‘target’ for Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri to surpass.
It is not to show who is greater, but to prove that a strong unity exists in the constituency, after all, Nancy hails from Santubong, as the Malay saying goes ‘umpama sirih pulang ke gagang’.
Nancy, who was the Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, also makes her a very suitable choice here, considering that Santubong has everything about tourism, arts and culture.
Thus, she can take advantage of her experience for that purpose.
Nancy’s challengers are two male competitors namely Mohd Zen Peli (PH-Amanah) and Affendi Jeman (Independent).
Even so, the two are not considered big rivals because of Nancy’s well-known personality.
Therefore, she does not need to be introduced excessively compared to the other two candidates.
Another factor weighing heavily on Nancy is GPS’ dominance of the three state seats under the Santubong parliamentary constituency – Tanjong Datu, Pantai Damai and Demak Laut which are represented by PBB.
There is no real threat for GPS to retain these two seats unless something extraordinary happens.
