Speaking during an online forum hosted by Malaysiana LCMS, political analyst James Chin said it comes down to the “patron-client” relationship that has been developed between elected representatives in rural areas and their constituents.
“The reason why it is very, very hard to dislodge the government is because unless you can break the link between the ordinary villagers and their patrons, it’s almost impossible,” he said, noting that this was the case in Sabah as well.
“Elections there are not as they are understood in the peninsula. Once every four or five years, people come around and there are endless beer parties, endless roast pork, endless everything. This year’s Christmas is the best they will have had in a very long time because of the money being thrown around.”
In addition, these communities become reliant on financial assistance from the government and may be less influenced by arguments like policy or the performance of Putrajaya compared to money or personalities.
“For most of the people, what is most important is their immediate surroundings. They don’t have any connection or influence over Kuching or Putrajaya, so their worldview is very localised,” he said.
Sarawak Report founder Clare Rewcastle Brown said that it was up to Peninsular Malaysia, not rural voters, to pressure Putrajaya to improve governance in Sarawak and enforce laws against leaders who engage in corruption to gain wealth and consolidate power.
“(The rural people) are hostages in their communities, they are under a ‘thugocrasy’ and have no choice but to accept what they are given,” she said, pointing to communities who relied heavily on government assistance.
“A radical social agenda is needed to redistribute income back to the people who earn the resources that have been financing the ruling clique,” she said, adding that this would in turn give these communities greater financial independence from the state government.
Parti Aspirasi Sains founder Kenneth Chai shared these sentiments, and said that nearly half of Sarawakians relied on the government or GLCs for income, either through work or as dependents. This, he said, was yet another example of the state government’s influence over the people.
“When your next paycheck is on the line, I don’t think you’d be thinking about changing things. The government knows this, and it has been like that for decades.”