KUCHING: Located along Rajang River, the longest river in the country, Sibu is one of the main ports in Sarawak as well as an important commercial and financial centre.
Dubbed as Swan City, it has a vibrant food scene, famous for its local delicacies such as kampua and kompia.
The Sibu Central Market is the biggest in Sarawak and largest indoor market in Malaysia, while Wisma Sanyan used to be the tallest building in the state.
However, it has not experienced much development progress compared to other major cities such as Kuching, Bintulu as well as Miri over the last few years.
A 31-year-old voter in Sibu said Sibu had been stuck in the same situation for more than a decade, which had driven investors away.
Sia Teck Chai said apart from overcoming the flood issues, more needed to be done, including strategic planning and maximising innovation to boost economic growth.
“By having more investors, especially tech companies in Sibu, it will help to create more attractive job opportunities as well as to retain local talents,” he told New Sarawak Tribune.
Sia, who is a consulting analyst, said the defeat of DAP in Pelawan in the state election was a warning sign.
“I know servicing the people without the strong support from the federal government (and grants) is not an easy task, but by hook or by crook, they have to start coming out with ideas or how to prompt the government to intensify development in Sibu.
“Voters in Sibu have been very patient in the past, but the patience won’t last long if our elected representatives continue to finger-point and blame the government for not doing anything,” he added.
Sibu is one of the hottest seats in central Sarawak in the 15th general election (GE15), which is seeing a three-cornered fight between two-term incumbent (DAP) Oscar Ling, Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) candidate Clarence Ting and Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) candidate Datuk Seri Wong Soon Koh, who is also the party president.
The parliamentary seat is made up of three state constituencies – Bawang Assan, Nangka and Pelawan. GPS retained Nangka and won back Pelawan from DAP in the last state election in December.
Wong also retained his seat in Bawang Assan in the last state polls. Hence, none of the state seats under Sibu are currently held by DAP.
Political analyst Dr Lee Kuok Tiung said Ting would not have much problem in addressing local issues as he is also the Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) chairman and people are familiar with him.
Ting is supported by Pelawan assemblyman Michael Tiang, who is also Deputy Minister for Public Health, Housing and Local Government.
Apart from that, Lee said Nangka assemblyman Datuk Dr Annuar Rapaee, a well-liked leader, who is also the Deputy Minister for Education, Innovation and Talent Development, had been campaigning on the ground for the GPS new face as well.
He added that the seat had 105,875 registered voters for GE15, compared to over 74,000 in GE14; this also saw a sudden hike in Bumiputera voters.
Meanwhile, Wong is a seasoned politician in Sarawak, who used to be part of the state government for decades – hence, he could not really condemn much about the past government, otherwise, it would be indirectly referring to his own failure.
Lee said though DAP’s Ling won the seat with a majority of 11,422 votes in GE14, it would not be ‘totally impossible’ for the votes to swing (to GPS) based on the state election result last year.
Apart from vote swing, there would be vote-splitting among the two opposition parties.
“As for now, all three candidates stand an equal chance of winning; Wong as a seasoned politician, Ting represents GPS, currently the most glamourous political coalition in Sarawak while urban voters are synonymous with voting for the opposition giving Oscar an advantage as well,” he explained.
Among the issues that need to be addressed, including bread and butter issues, more foreign investments, more job opportunities, better incomes and livelihoods as well as plans to boost the domestic tourism sector.
