MP SPEAKS | No absentee voting for S'wak diaspora shows Malayan-centrism

MP SPEAKS | According to an estimate, at least 250,000 out of 1,252,014 Sarawakian voters are living in Semenanjung, Sabah and Labuan.

That means one in every five Sarawakian voters is expected to fly home before Dec 18 to vote, just a week before Christmas, or give up their right to decide their home region’s future for the next five years.

Can you imagine the size of 250,000 voters? If they are shipped by Airbus A320 with 160 passengers, that would take 1,560 flights one way.

If all airlines operate on full capacity, and say we have 30 flights a day from Kuala Lumpur and Kota Kinabalu to Kuching, Sibu, Bintulu and Miri, that will take 52 days, or 7.5 weeks, to ship them, one way.

Why does this not concern the chairperson of the Election Commission and the Sarawak state government?

Because they know most Sarawakians just cannot afford to go home.

On Sunday, when the election is nearly two weeks ahead, an outgoing flight from Kuala Lumpur on Dec 17 and a returning flight on Dec 19 will cost...