May 8, 2016
2016 Sarawak Polls: Adenan sworn in as Chief Minister – Nation | The Star Online
Report by Bernama
Sarawakians handed Tan Sri Adenan Satem a landslide victory in a ringing endorsement of his two years in office as Chief Minister and returning Barisan Nasional to power for an 11th straight term.
Time to get back to work on your promises and work for Sarawakians
The Barisan sweep of 72 seats was all the sweeter because it wrested seven Chinese seats including Batu Kawah, the most keenly watched contest in the election with SUPP President Dato’ Dr Sim Kui Hian coming out the victor.
It was a defining moment for the 72-year-old Adenan in four decades of politics.Leading Barisan for the first time in a state election, he had asked voters to give him five more years to realise his vision for the state in what he has said will be his last term with Chinese representation in his Cabinet .
Din Merican: the Malaysian DJ Blogger 
There was never any doubt that Adenan Satem would win hands down. But he did not have to depend on Najib and UMNO-BN to achieve this resounding victory. Now Najib will spin this electoral success as an endorsement of his leadership of our country. 1MDB scandal won’t just disappear.
As for the opposition, the message is clear. Get your act together, learn some humility from this defeat, or face a hammering in GE14. You are a pale shadow of what you were in 2008.
Sarawak 2016 is a clear signal to Azmin Ali, Lim Guan Eng and Mat Sabu and those young and arrogant leaders in Pakatan Harapan, and that is stop talking too much and start producing results.
Right now, Pakatan Harapan is just a mirror image of the corrupt UMNO-BN. We are watching you since we are not impressed with your rhetoric.
There is a message to Dato’ Seri Azmin Ali in particular. He should decide between Pakatan Harapan and UMNO. Right now, he has some bad habits which are clearly demonstrated by Najib. Watch it or Selangor will be UMNO’s after GE-14. As I see it, he is are no different from his predecessor who he plotted to remove. The stories I hear about him are most uncomplimentary. –Din Merican
ps. I just noticed something today. It has been staring into my face for quite a while. Since the blog started in 2007, it has received 146,000 approved comments. What a store house of interesting perspectives. Keep on coming. Thanks, guys, for making that possible.
No doubt at all from the very beginning, a huge Man at heart yet so humble and full of humility, the Chief Minister displays qualities of sincerity for his rakyat and that is why most if not all are attracted to him ! Even in his low=tone language, most often the little things he says or utters display the depth of his heart – a great personality indeed . Sarawak should RETAIN him at all cost …..for as long as he is able – Best of Luck to Sarawak……
Let’s do a ‘ doa ‘ for his performance in improving the state more and more ….fortunate for the people indeed !
Congrats in order for CM Adenan Satem. His Satawak policies are comprehensive. BN should learn from this victory for the GE14.
Why are we congratulating adnen satem? He is a fraud at its worst. He made use of all the state’s resources and money to win this election, and in this he had the full support of the federal government; read najib and zahid hamidi. Money was flowing as if there is no tomorrow; and he brought in the timber tycoons with their filthy wealth to con the chinese. And in all these the EC turned a blind eye. There is no hope as long as the enforcement agencies are tied to the skirt of umno. The rape of the forests will continue. More dams will be built. And the Ibans and Dayaks will be left wondering why they are still marginalized in their own state where they are the majority.
Team Najib is already out to demoralize the Peninsula voters who are largely against him. Najib exploits the weakness of his opponents to excesses. He knew he could never out talk Mahathir so, it was always his plan to buy his power as PM and President of UMNO. He knows he cannot buy voters in Peninsula like in Sarawak but he can divide the opposition and Cheat the next election.
Hence the key to him is first Hadi’s PAS and then fraud. He has plenty of options. With Malay opposition refusing to see PAS as also their opposition, Najib got first advantage. Then foolishly indulging in their own internal politicking, Najib has a more than even chance to win the next GE. Why do people think Mahathir and Muhiyiddin, traditional lifetime Malay ultras, is willing to sit with the opposition, DAP in particular?
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By corruption, dirty tricks, stealth and any other means, the people of Sarawak have spoken. Congratulations are in order. They must now bear the consequences, but do they have any choice, given the alternative is not any better. Both are peas in a dirty political pod.Come GE14, we are all faced with the same choices.–Din Merican
It’s enough of PKR and its absurdity. I too believe that PKR will be working with UMNO like how it is working with PAS now because I can see PKR is being treated by UMNO Stalwarts different in their campaign against DAP.
I have said this and again I shall repeat that PKR will end its mission as an opposition party as long as Azmin is there. PKR will be doomed soon after GE14 because we don’t see any prospects in opposition pack with all the bickering one against the other.
Did PKR or DAP achieve anything from their quarrel in Sarawak Elections? The winner is Barisan because of the stupidity of the opposition in claiming their right to certain constituency to nominate their candidate.
When can this opposition learn to be more matured to form a formidable party?
The win was a foregone conclusion with all the goodies which included waiver of quit rent and assessment rates for residential properties and other ‘handouts’ given to voters with promises of more IF WE WIN and the new seats in rural areas and barring of opponents to visit Sarawak.
It may be speculated that the opponents were perceived to be so influential that they may have changed the results of the elections.
This may be the local version of free elections.
I don’t think there is anyone surprised of the result of this so-called election in Sarawak. Once again it confirms that largesse always trumps ethics in Malaysia.
A hollow victory, period.
60+ % of votes can win 80+ % of all seats ??
Democracy, 1Malaysia-style
What is almost everybody here bitching about?
Sarawak is Sarawak. It might not conform to your ‘modern’ sense of propriety or reality of how the ‘World’ should work – or what ‘Justice and Fairplay’ really means. The steamy jungles and the inhabitants are barely out of the Stone Age, despite their professed ‘Religion’ and ‘Education’.. Their mores and appetites are not yours or mine. So it is a forgone conclusion that Money Talks and Talk-Talk Walks.
What upsets an old hound dog like me is the fact that the Oppo over there is Lame and will become Lamer, as they fight over the supposedly better informed or ‘enlightened’ urban and semi-urban seats. They could have won in those and several more. But they filled themselves with Hubris and what is worse, blamed the ‘Low Voter Turn-out’. They castrated themselves, plain and simple.
The Chinapek is not easily fooled, ya? The Dayak need palm grease. And the Melanau-Malay need Melayu.. What can DAP arrogance and PKR recalcitrance give in return? Nada.
So what is all this about gerrymandering, malapportionment of seats, money and pork barrel politics? Accept it as a ‘given’ – as that is how dirty, politics is and will be. Bersih notwithstanding. Truth is unpalatable? Try to wean yourselves, kiddo.
Why is it that the old war horse LKS understands that, and you geniuses don’t? And btw, how many of you have really quaffed a live sago palm beetle larvae? Except Tok Cik, of course..
Coming soon to a building near you?
(As corruption deepens in 1Malaysia)
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-36205324
We already have collapsing stadiums in Kuala Terengganu.
I have deleted comments like yours because they pollute this blog. I have warned you many times before. You chose to ignore my warnings. If you persist, I will use the spam mechanism and you will shut out for good.–Din Merican
Does spending two years working the ground with the Kayan folk on their Native Customary Land Rights trump exotic culinary adventures ? I still don’t have any real insight on the land and her people. But yeah CLF, you’re right too .
Anyway Commander (RTD) S. Thayaparan was spot on with this piece :
https://www.malaysiakini.com/columns/340311
Mahathir: “When you believe you can become popular by giving the people money, then you will find that the people will demand even more money.”
The “people” include the party chieftains 🙂
UMNO Baru-BN is essentially a mechanism to transfer money (from income tax, GST, pension funds, oil money etc.) to our parasite political class.
When I first set foot on Sarawak soil at a military post up in the Bekalan Highlands in 1969, I had a fair idea where this vast pristine state would eventually end.
Sarawakians, by contrast, are suspicious of people from the peninsula. They consider them as no better than the British colonialists, and this was most obvious in the way we servicemen were treated. But that was of no consequence, as I soon come to love the state and the people.
Living and serving the state gave me a sense of satisfaction and purpose I didn’t get elsewhere. The Ibans, Bedayuhs, Penans and what have you, are simple yet dignified folks who take you for what you are. So putting up a front and behaving like lord are things they loathe.
Yeah, I had my fair share of “mentakok”, “tapai”, “cap langkow” and the occasional “nyayap” which many of my brethren have neither heard nor experienced.
Yes, CLF I had the creepy larvae for breakfast, lunch and dinner and even barbecued “kambing batu” and flying foxes. They were given to me by my soldiers and friends from the longhouses where we operated.
It’s impolite to refuse an offer and I stood by this norm till today. Being hypocritical is not my cup of tea.
Notwithstanding the outcome of the state election, I am happy for my fellow Sarawakians. I doubt the fractious Opposition can do much or as well with their brand of politicking. They simply don’t have a viable plan or a likable solution in hand.
You can’t just go on with your ramblings on IMDB and Rosmah’s Berkin and Hermes handbags. They don’t mean anything to the “indai” and the “apai”. Period.
Congratulations to you Tan Sri Adenan.
The fragrance of this victory would continue to waft till the next State Election had Opposition figures from Peninsular not been kicked out so unceremoniously given that the fractious Harapan was hell-bent on self-immolation. Victory would have been so much the sweeter, purer and uncontaminated by accusations of below-the belt-punching as those players in the Peninsular are wont to do.
This is your hour, and I hope you cherish it by taking concrete steps to usher in a new era of meaningful changes, specifically for the benefit of the vast majority of ordinary citizens.
If State land is to be alienated, then transparent open tenders should be called, but a portion of these alienations, say 60%, must be done with the upliftment of the native communities in mind. Native Trust bodies could be set up so that the ultimate beneficiaries (when development takes place) will be the various native groups in the State — this must be the new paradigm for the elevation of the economic status of the natives — we must end the days of creating new land barons (of whatever ethnic groups).
The constitution of the Trust and how it should be run could be worked out by the various government departments. If Tun Razak is remembered today for creating FELDA, you could and should be remembered for being a nationalist — a true son of the soil .
My best wishes to you, but do stay alert in the company of your friends.
Yup Tok Cik, the ‘poor’ have their own sense of dignity and pride.
No one can’t take that away.
Therefore we often see the poor and disenfranchised are most welcoming and share whatever they have, with humble guests who ‘descend’ to their level of being. They abhor those who rant and rave, and worst of all ‘Pity’ them – for their lack of material things and ‘modern conveniences’. All they want is to share what little they have, and to be proud of it. I learnt that in my rural postings, way back in late 70s, when a mangkok of ‘kanji’ (porridge) with a few slivers of ikan masin and boiled potato leaves was all that was to be had. One meal a day.
The same, in every destitute hole where the poorest of the poor lived. They don’t need our sympathy and false promises, but our understanding and whatever immediate help.
In a way, i think those Oppo megastars, with the exception of good ole’ LKS would have pissed them off with their thunderous charismatic speeches – which counts for nothing among these simple folk. They take such elections as a comical distraction to their life of daily toil and drudgery. They never gripe, only them – the ‘Fortunate’ sons.
As Viktor Frankl (the Nazi holocaust victim and eminent psychiatrist) says:
“Everything can be taken from a Man, but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
Here’s to you and the quiet, distinguished way you’ve served the nation – and to our buddy semper fi and of course, Pak Din – none of whom were ever ‘Fortunate sons’:
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CLF, here’s to the men and women of our generation. In fact, we are the fortunate ones. We knew humility and the idea of service above self. We embody the ethics of hard work and “common decency”. To some people, especially the UMNO types, we are stupid because we never used the opportunities available to us then to make money.
At 77 in 13 days’time, I know what I did was the right thing. Greed consumes the dignity of man. Humility, on the other hand, makes him great. Examples of our times include HAMKA, Gunter Grass, Gandhi, Mandela, The Dalai Lama, Pope Francis, Ernesto Che Guevera, and Zhou En Lai. Najib will soon discover that when UMNO kicks him out as their President. Money cannot buy his freedom. It is my birthday wish that he goes to jail.
BTW I am going to the Malaysian Embassy this morning (May 10) to meet with the new Ambassador who, I am told, is a Najib crony.–Din Merican