Chapter 5 - Ba’ Kelalan: Sustaining the Crack in the BN's Rural Dominance

Summary

Ba’ Kelalan is one of the most competitive seats contested in the Sarawak state election. The last three state elections – in 2006, 2011, and now 2016 – have seen either Barisan Nasional (BN, National Front) or opposition candidates win the seat with only slight majorities (Table 1). This election was no different: Baru Bian, the incumbent candidate from the opposition Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR, People's Justice Party) faced a stiff challenge from his opponent from 2011, Willie Liau of the BN-component Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP). How Baru retained his seat, despite the opposition's poor performance overall in rural Sarawak, offers insight into how voters balance potentially conflicting priorities and ties in defining their interests.

Ba’ Kelalan has 7,375 voters, 87.8 per cent of whom are Lun Bawang/Kelabit, followed by Chinese at 4.4 per cent, Malay/Melanau at 3.9 per cent, Iban at 2.6 per cent, and 1.3 per cent Others. As is the case in many rural areas in Sarawak, Ba’ Kelalan still lags behind urban areas in terms of development of infrastructure such as a secondary school, electricity, piped water supply, clinics, and so on. The lack of proper electricity and water supply has left many Lun Bawang to rely on gravity-fed water and solar energy.

Given the importance of development in Ba’ Kelalan, it is understandable that the BN once again resorted to the ‘politics of development’ (see Jitab and Ritchie, 1992; Weiss and Puyok, this volume), hoping to recapture Ba’ Kelalan from PKR's Baru Bian, who has held the seat since 2011. The BN's politics of development approach came with the announcement of millions of ringgit in allocations to fulfil Ba’ Kelalan's development needs (more on this below) and reminders to Lun Bawang voters that it is only through the ruling coalition that Ba’ Kelalan can be developed.

Despite the BN's well-oiled campaign machinery and promotion of the politics of development, the ruling party failed for the second time to wrest Ba’ Kelalan from the opposition. That loss means the BN failed to make a clean sweep across Sarawak's rural areas. This chapter is an attempt to understand the dynamics of electoral politics in Ba’ Kelalan by looking at salient issues affecting the Lun Bawang voters’ decisions. The chapter also explores the role of faith-based organisations, their networks, and their influence among Lun Bawang voters.