COMMENT | 'United opposition front' talks a waste of time

COMMENT | In January, a month after the Dec 18 Sarawak election, a top leader of a Sarawak opposition party called me, saying that he would like to pick my brain on a proposed talk about opposition unity in the state.

What he told me was this – Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) president Wong Soon Koh was reported to be keen on initiating a “united front” among opposition parties in Sarawak.

This was prompted by the disastrous opposition outing in the state polls in which the ruling Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) won by a landslide. The governing coalition took 76 out of the 82 seats in the legislative assembly.

There is a general consensus within the opposition that going into the 15th general election (GE15) without a pact will again spell disaster for the opposition. That is a given. It is understood and acknowledged by all.

Wong felt that the opposition in Sarawak must work on a kind of understanding or cooperation before GE15, so I was made to understand.

My initial reply to my friend was: “Good, an electoral pact is necessary all the time, not only for the coming election, but for all elections. Only the politically naïve or greenhorns are unable to see that. However, whether so-called unity talks will be fruitful or not is another matter.

“But tell the PSB president to...