Lessons for the opposition from Sarawak polls
This article has earlier appeared in Beritadaily.com on 30/5/2016 The recent Sarawak state election on May 7 has exposed the true colours of the opposition. They can only expect worse come the 14th General Election if the bickering parties do not buck up and patch things up. The Sarawak Barisan Nasional won handsomely, getting 72 out of 82 seats in the enlarged state legislative assembly. The opposition Pakatan Harapan suffered a major setback, winning only 10 seats with DAP getting seven, down from 12 in 2011, PKR retaining its three seats, and Amanah finishing empty-handed. Opposition parties outside of Pakatan such as PAS were also wiped out. So, was it because of the Adenan factor? Some say it worked, but it certainly was not the only reason for the swing back to BN. The fact is that BN won with a landslide because the field was gravely uneven, where the ruling state coalition enjoyed all the advantages in terms of finance, logistics, mainstream media, communication channels a