Contents Statement of the problem... 2 Introduction... 2 Literature review... 4 Research contribution... 7 Background... 8 Political domination and contestation in Sibu... 10 Research questions... 12 Research Methods... 13 Thesis outline... 14 Figure 1. Map of Sarawak, Malaysia 1
Statement of the problem The purpose of the study is to expand on our understanding of variable patterns of domination of the incumbent government in Sarawak. It would also lay out the variety of social forces and patterns of their participation in shaping the state. The study focuses on the origins and activities of particular social forces that have contested for political leverage and social prestige through exerting their power on local state and social institutions. In addition to the political parties, I have identified certain elite families, logging business corporations, middle classes and ethnic-based and religious organizations as the major actors in Sibu politics. I will cast Sibu politics within the regional and national politics, and the international economic context to illuminate how the dominant social forces of Sibu and their activities are bound together or divided to other forces at the state and local levels. It also explores the political change and emergence of new forces after the Malaysian political tsunami of 2008. Introduction The national ruling government of Malaysia, Barisan Nasional (BN), has enjoyed preeminence at the polls in all elections of the country except for the 1969 and the recent 2008 general elections, in which BN lost its two-thirds majority in Parliament. Apart from this setback, the BN also lost five states to the opposition but subsequently regained the state of Perak after three Assemblymen from opposition switched to BN. Despite the unprecedented defeats in the west coast of Peninsula, BN continued to hold firmly on the rest of the states especially Johor, Pahang, Sabah and Sarawak. 1 Nevertheless, the Sarawak voters shocked the entire nation by sending in fourteen candidates from opposition coalition into the State Assembly Hall at the 2011 Sarawak state elections. The national government ruled by a coalition of more than ten political parties. Among all the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) is the dominant party, whose members occupy a majority of cabinet posts in the federal government. Major political parties of BN exercise a restrictive policy on member recruitment, for example, UMNO restricts it membership to ethnic Malay only. The major national policies currently implemented by the UMNO-led BN including economic, educational, cultural and etc. are highly ethnicized. Nevertheless, UMNO also depends on non-malay communal heads to entice the electoral support of non-malay communities which comprise about one third of the total population. UMNO s prowess in accommodating 1 During the 2008 general elections, BN won 24 out of 25 parliamentary seats in Johor; 12 out of 14 in Pahang; 23 out of 24 in Sabah; and 30 out of 31 in Sarawak. 2
the goals and desires of various communal communities has ensured its longstanding domination at the power centre. The major characteristics of national politics have been replicated in Sarawak. As in the Peninsular Malaysia, the political competition within Sarawak is closely relative to its demographic structure. In both Peninsular Malaysia and Sarawak, the major social cleavages follow along the lines of ethnicity and religion. With respect to political orientation, the population of Sarawak can be divided into three forces namely the Muslim bumiputera, the Dayak or Non-Muslim bumiputera and the Chinese. 2 The patterns of political organization within the state reflect such social cleavages. The dominant party of Sarawak government is the Parti Pesaka Bangsa Bersatu (PBB), a Muslim-dominated party, whereas the subordinate parties include the Chinese-dominated SUPP, the Dayak-based parties of Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) and Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP). As none of the ethnic group comprise a single majority of the total population, cooperation between different ethnic groups is essential to achieve political domination. Thus, the ruling government of the day is a coalition consisted of the four political parties mentioned above. In addition to ethnic and religious divisions, class, clannish, regional sentiment and patron-client relationship also serve as the points of consolidation and division. Despite the recent setback in urban-based seats, the ruling coalition of Sarawak has never lost its two-thirds majority in the state assembly, and has always delivered a significant sum of parliamentary seats for its federal counterpart to retain a majority in the parliament. The recent electoral results suggest that the incumbent government has retained a strong grip over Sarawak, albeit one starting to weaker. In order to have a better understanding of the domination patterns of Malaysian government on the periphery like Sarawak and the approaches of local actors in sustaining such domination, it is necessary to focus on an area which local actors play a substantial role in maneuvering the local political competition. A large body of the existing literature on the Sarawak politics investigates mainly two aspects, firstly the leadership of state strongman namely the Chief Minister in dominating the state and society of Sarawak, and secondly the institutional actors namely the political parties in asserting their social influences through party mechanism, state agency and election system. This study, however, argues that the politics of Sarawak is a more complex one and the complexity can only unfold by zooming into the politics at the town level. The study of politics in Sibu shows that the patterns of state domination pose a striking contrast in the different ethnic communities of Sarawak. The state-actors rely heavily on the state institutions to dominate the Muslim 2 A term used to denote the nativeness of the ethnic Malays in Peninsular Malaysia and the indigenous people of Sarawak and Sabah. People with the status of bumiputera are recognized by the ruling government as the original people of Malaysia and entitled to special treatments including government scholarships, projects and tenders. 3
bumiputera community whereas make use of middle-rank state actors and local-based non-state actors to entice the electoral support of the Chinese and Dayak communities. The town of Sibu is chosen as the study subject in view of the longstanding domination of BN government in the town and the strong presence of local actors in the local politics. There are two parliamentary and five state constituencies fall under the areas of Sibu town. Due to the complexity of the demography, this thesis focuses mainly on the internal dynamics of the Chinese, the largest ethnic community in the town, and the role of tycoon-politicians in the local political process. Literature review The political history of Sarawak during the Brookes period was written mainly by western historians who were intrigued with and often sympathized with the Brookes rule. Brooke personalities, their intentions, policies and system of government were often the focus of those studies. For instances, Steven Runciman (1960) s work gives a great deal of facts of the Brookes kingdom by seeking out unofficial documents such as James Brooke s letters, biographies written by British writers, and letters and journals published by his friends. He shared Robert Payne s (1960) observation that Sarawak was at least poor in institutionalized management. Recent studies of Brookes rule of Sarawak (Pringle 1970; Walker 2002) retains the view of weak institution in regard to the governance of Brookes, added that the aspect of local resilience and their perceptions toward the foreign government. Apart from the academic studies carried out by the western historians, there were local records in Chinese texts, which took note of the feelings and experiences of early Chinese immigrants in the process of settlement. The works of Chiang Liu s (1955), Kiu s (1997) and Liu Zi Zheng (2000) focus specifically on the early life of Foochow immigrants of Sibu and the major incidents that occurred in the town. During the postwar period, the growing field of anthropologists studies of Sarawak society has contributed to our understanding of the everyday life of local communities. One of them is Tien Ju Kang s (1953) work discussing the organizational lives of the Chinese in the First Division. Tien s study provided an understanding of how Chinese socio-economic and political lives were structured along kingship ties. He identified the credit system as a key vehicle to sustain both personal as well as working relationships between urban and rural Chinese. Taking a geographical perspective, Craig Lockard s (1987) study detailed the evolution of Kuching from 1820 to 1970, from a small village to a city with its distinctive multi-ethnic character. Sutlive s (1988) study addressed the issues of tradition and modernity in Iban society contending that the socio-economic changes in Sarawak during the modernization process led to the lost of traditional Iban culture, especially the part of Iban culture based on hill cosmology. 4
After Independence in 1963 via the incorporation of Sarawak into Malaysia, political scientists have focused their attention on Sarawak too, studying the process of nation building. During the first decade of the national period, Sarawak politics developed under the shadow of federalization. After 1963, Sarawak operated within a federal framework signifying the superiority of the federal over the state. The Ministries of Education, Defence, Foreign Policy and Internal Security all fell under the jurisdiction of the federal government. The federal government also had an active role in deciding on the Chief Minister of Sarawak. With respect to the power struggle between the federal and Sarawak governments, studies of Sarawak politics of the 1970s have shown the active intervention of the federal government into Sarawak leadership problems which led to the shunting aside of a non-muslim bumiputera chief minister and his replacement by a Muslim bumiputera. In the book of Milne and Ratnam (1974) have discussed the problems faced by the central government in the early stage of nation-building and illustrated the strategies to pacify local resistance to the nation-building process. Basically they viewed the struggles of both Sarawak and Sabah chief ministers in the early independence days as problems created by so-called subsystems, and that silencing dissent from the subsystem was a major step towards transforming a traditional society to a unified and modern nation. After the eventful 1960s, there was a temporary consolidation of the Iban electorate under SNAP, associated with the rise of Iban communalism in Sarawak politics. The SNAP was excluded from the ruling coalition in 1970 but returned to the BN s in 1976. This period saw the increasing identification of the Iban electorate with SNAP rather than with SUPP and Pesaka as before. Peter Searle (1983) regarded the realignment of Iban electorates as the evidence of SNAP leadership picking up on the new needs and aspirations of the Iban community, amidst the rapid socio-economic changes. The SNAP leaders who were young and educated were able to address the broad issues with respect to the long term needs of the Iban community as a whole. The SUPP and Pesaka, however, still very much relied on the traditional leadership, the penghulus. Peter Searle even predicted the possibility of Iban s regaining its preeminant political position in the coming future. A local Malay scholar, Sanib Said (1985) examined the political change of Sarawak after the World War II from the Malay perspective. His study focused on the political conflicts and unification of two groups in the Malay-Muslim community. He regarded Brooke policies as the main cause of the splits betwen Malay commoners and aristocrats. The splits were partially resolved when the Parti Bumputera was formed in 1966. Michael Leigh (1974, 1988) also investigated the federalization of Sarawak politics by examining the pattern of political organization and the political culture at the 5
state level. He concluded that the federal government had driven local politics in the direction of ethnic politics and that those who were against that flow in direction would quickly be sidelined. However he contended that ethnic politics in Sarawak would not turn full blossom as in West Malaysia because the population of Sarawak was more diverse. Ethnic blocs were less rigid and there was more room for realignment of groups. In the meantime, regional and religious sentiments had also helped to contest racism. When the former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohammad came to power in 1982, he became the focus of general studies. During his twenty-two-year rule, the country, including the state of Sarawak, achieved rapid high economic growth for about two decades. However, the country was underwent drastic political change during those two decades. Though there is a lack of in-depth political studies on Sarawak politics during this period, new scholars began to write on the correlation between Sarawak politics and development, and on money politics too (Aeria 1997). Aeria (2002) s thesis took an institutional approach in examining how the complex relationships among business, politics and the State have shaped the development of Sarawak from 1970 to 2000. His study contrasts how although much development occurred in Sarawak, and the living conditions of people were improved, the environment was degraded and the rural indigenous communities were displaced. He argues that this mixed fortune was due to the growth of uncompetitive capitalism and a dysfunctional bureaucracy. A few books focusing on the politics of particular communities were published in the 1990s. James Chin illustrated the changes in Chinese politics by examining the reasons for SUPP s success. He attributed the domination of SUPP in Chinese politics to three factors: SUPP as the kingmaker in state politics; the manipulation of the regional sentiments of Sarawakians; and the fear of Sarawak Chinese towards the increasing domination of Malay political power at the centre government. Another study by Jayum A. Jawan (1994) traced back to Brooke policies the causes of Iban political and socioeconomic underdevelopment today. He contended that Brooke policies had reinforced Iban identification with the rural areas and agriculture, and regional cleavages first emerged in the Brooke period and continue to divide the Ibans today. In addition to loyalty to supra-regional political parties as one of the features, contemporary Iban politics has been constantly challenged by two other factors: a fragmented Iban society and the factionalism among Iban leaders. The most recent and important publication on Sarawak politics is Faisal S. Hazis s (2011) work of the domination of Sarawak state actors within the Malay Muslim community. Basically he contends that the federal government has compromised the regional state institution to accommodate the goals of regional state actors as long as the latter are able to deliver the votes that needed for political domination at the centre. 6
Besides ethnic and party politics, some scholars have analyzed the Sarawak politics in the 1970s through the lens of patron-client ties. Scott (1972) and Milne (1973) both acknowledged the limitation of class and communalism models in explaining the associations and conflicts within or across ethnic groups. Scott compares the sustainability of political leadership among Indonesia, Burma and Malayisa, and concluded the legitimacy of Indonesia and Burma political leaders was in large part sustained by instrumental and personal ties between the official patrons and their lower tier clients. They easily collapsed when they failed to deliver material goods to the electorates. The Malaysian regime, however, was more stable as its legitimacy was less dependent on patron-client relationships but on traditions as well. Milne addressed the changes of traditional patron-client relationships in Sarawak and Sabah after the two states joined the Federation of Malaysia. For Milne traditional patron-client ties extended to the central government and that provided a vertical channel of integration between the central and the peripheral authorities. However, similar to Scott s argument, Milne s contended that the ethnic and ideological politics in Sabah and Sarawak restrained the working of patron-client relationships. Patron-client relationships have evolved into a patronage system in the course of national development. By implementing the New Economic Policy in 1971, the state has created a vast monetary-based patron-client network which has fostered the growth of money politics within the State. Patron-client ties also play a significant role in grassroots mobilization during elections. The pervasive of money politics during the elections implies that a specific political structure and mobilization is working at the grassroots level. A substantial writings on Sarawak politics do bring up the problem of money politics (Masjid Cooke 1999, Aeria 1997, Goldman 1997) but they do not trace the sources and structures of the networks and why they work in this election but fail in another. Research contribution This thesis intends to investigate the politics of the periphery in Malaysia through the lens of local politics in Sibu. A large part of the thesis will define the formulation of local context, how it shapes the Sibu politics and the implications of Sibu politics to the state of Malaysia. It provides a better understanding of how the BN government has been able to dominate an ethnically diverse society for more than half of a century by using state and non-state actors. Additionally, it shows how the central government has made use of local strongmen and their private resources for maintaining domination in the peripheral areas which the central government has not yet prepared to integrate their interests into the state institution and policy. In concrete terms, the local politics of Sibu shows how the Malay-Muslim-based central elite have been able to maintain political domination in a Chinese and Christian majority town. 7
Background In order to set the stage for the analysis presented in the later sections, it is first necessary to introduce the historical and socio-economic setting of Sibu. At the early twentieth century, the white rajah of Sarawak had allowed the immigration of more than three thousands of Chinese agriculturalists from the Southern province of China to the lower Rejang River. The initial purpose of bringing in the farmers was growing rice in order to reduce the import of food. Unfortunately the project failed and that compelled many farmers to turn rubber planting. During the pre-war period, most of the Chinese farmers involved in rubber planting, whereas the Ibans remained growing hill rice and the Melanau growing sago. Compared to rice and sago planters, the life of rubber planters was more dramatic as the prices of rubber were extremely volatile during the two world war periods. Along the process, while some made huge profits, some suffered from losses and unemployment. During the post-war years, Sibu entered the second phase of development spurred by the robust logging activities in the swamp forests of Sibu Division. The thriving timber industry resulted in the rapid growth of the town and Sibu was reputed as the second largest city in Sarawak. European corporations and local Chinese contractors pioneered in logging the swamp forests had made great fortune by opening out a global market for the Sarawak timber. When Sarawak achieved independence in 1963, the local timber entrepreneurs gradually dominated the logging industry and many of them went into politics. Some of them became the staunch supporters of British government and later the ruling elite of newly independent country. However, the Chinese timber businessmen have not made any advancement in their political career due to the ethnic politics played up by the new regime. The new regime makes ethnicity a determinant criterion in political party recruitment, granting timber concessions and logging permits, civil service recruitment etc. In the midst of state-led ethnic politics, a group of bureaucrat-politicians, consisted of Muslim-bumiputera politicians, emerged. Most of these bureaucrat-politicians involved in rent-seeking activities by renting out their timber concessions to the Chinese timber contractors. In return, they receive grafts and election fund. The influences of timber tycoons over the political process of Sarawak have gradually receded to the communal and local community since Rahman Yakub took over the Chief Minister of Sarawak in 1970. Nevertheless, their social influences in particular areas such as the everyday activities in major towns, logging industry and timber-thrived rural towns remain strong. The following tables that indicate the employment patterns in the logging activities and sawmills suggest that timber-related employments were crossethnicity and region, and concentrated on Sibu and Miri. Table 1 shows the employment 8
distributed in seven divisions of Sarawak, in which Sibu town is located in the Third Division which also known as Sibu Division. Administrative Division Total 1 2 3(Sibu) 4(Miri) 5 6 7 Hill Logging Admin. Staff 64 23 44 618 53-70 872 Production workers 348 35 384 5,051 507-449 6,774 Sub-total 412 58 428 5,669 560-519 7,646 Swamp Logging Admin. Staff 12 136 116 110 22 80-476 Production workers 1,000 2,238 2,516 2,783 132 1,103-9,772 Sub-total 1,012 2,374 2,632 2,893 154 1,183-10,248 Total 1,424 2,432 3,060 8,562 714 1,183 519 19,986 Table 2. Employment patterns in the Sarawak s logging industry, 1979 (Forest Department Sarawak, 1979, p. 77) Figures in Table 2 indicate Sibu Division was lagging behind the Forth or Miri Division in the logging industry of Sarawak in the late 1970s. One of the explanations to this is the swamp forest in the Sibu Division had been depleted after rapid harvest. Logging companies had then shifted their harvesting works to other regions especially the swamp and hill forests in Forth Division. Table 1 shows that among seven divisions, Forth Division created the highest number of employment and followed by Third Division. As can calculate from Table 2, Sibu has gradually lost its important status as it had enjoyed in the 1960s. Section Number of Sawmills Average Monthly Employment Timber Conversion Chinese Iban Malay Melanau Others Total Input (Cu. metres) Output (Cu. metres) Kuching 31 583 542 984-1 2,110 290,932 123,081 Sibu 28 563 373 293 301 1 1,531 250,808 102,057 Bintulu 15 163 121 170 56-510 78,550 38,606 Miri 30 256 311 177 43 123 910 170,874 50,854 Total 104 1,565 1,347 1,624 400 125 5,061 791,164 323,608 Table 3. Average Monthly Employment in sawmills of Sarawak, 1981 (Forest Department Sarawak, 1981, p. 108) As shown in Table 3, there was about a hundred plus of sawmills in Sarawak in the early 1980s. The number was spread quite evenly in three major sections namely Kuching, Sibu and Miri, and relatively less in Bintulu. 9
700,000 600,000 593,671 500,000 400,000 300,000 200,000 100,000 0 494,109 369,065 262,085 294,716 221,055 166,894 206,297 240,402 125,254 183,892 161,371 139,012 92,554 86,132 42,812 1980 1991 2000 2010 Kuching Sibu Miri Bintulu Table 4. Population of four major cities in Sarawak, 1980-2010 (Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2011; Department of Statistics Malaysia, 2001) The development of the Sarawak s towns implies the significance of timber industry in shaping the society of Sarawak. Many towns are either directly or indirectly affected by the boom and bust of timber businesses. Table 4 indicates the growth of population trend among the four biggest cities of Sarawak between 1980 and 2010. Among four towns, Miri has gone through the fastest growth and its population has overtaken the city of Sibu since the middle of 1990s. Entering the twenty first century, the growth of Sibu population is the slowest among the four biggest cities of Sarawak. Political domination and contestation in Sibu There are two parliamentary and five state constituencies fall under the areas of Sibu town, where all the candidates of BN contesting those seats are from SUPP except for the state constituency of Nangka. Considering Muslims as the majority of the electorate of Nangka, the candidate of BN contesting there has always been a Muslim from PBB. As mentioned in the previous paragraphs, the study focuses mainly on the internal dynamics within the Sibu Chinese, the following analysis will also centre on the Chinese majority and mixed seats. 10
Table 5 shows that Sibu SUPP candidates won in all parliamentary elections held in the Rejang Basin (the constituencies of Lanang and Sibu) over the last three decades except for the loss of Sibu and Lanang in 1982 and 1990 respectively. With respect to state elections, Tables 6 and 7 indicate that the DAP, the sole opposition party in 1990s, failed repeatedly until in 1996 when they won 2 seat in Sibu. The opposition performed badly again in the first half of 2010s with SUPP almost captured all the seats. Nevertheless, the latest election results indicate that the SUPP s domination in Sibu areas appears shaky in view of several losses in both parliamentary and state elections. The recent political changes in Sibu and other urban centres of Sarawak reflect a similar pattern of political development in the Peninsular Malaysia. The fascinating question here is the underlying causes of the continuity or transformation of political landscapes in different periods and the mechanism that has accounts for this continuity or transformation. Constituencies 2008 2004 1999 1995 1990 1986 1982 1978 Sibu DAP 3 SUPP SUPP SUPP SUPP SUPP DAP SUPP Lanang SUPP SUPP SUPP SUPP DAP - - - Table 5. 1978-2008 Sarawak Parliamentary Elections: Constituencies won by SUPP and DAP in the Chinese-majority Constituencies of Sibu District Constituencies 2011 2006 2001 1996 1991 Bukit Assek DAP DAP SUPP DAP SUPP Dudong DAP SUPP SUPP SUPP SUPP Bawang Assan SUPP SUPP SUPP SUPP SUPP Pelawan DAP SUPP SUPP DAP SUPP Table 6. 1991-2006 Sarawak State Elections: Constituencies won by SUPP and DAP in the Chinese-majority Constituencies of Sibu District. Constituencies 1987 1983 1979 Maling SUPP SUPP SUPP Igan* SUPP SUPP SUPP Seduan SUPP SUPP SUPP *Igan was a Dayak-majority seat with a high proportion of Chinese. The seat had always been won by the Chinese candidates either from SCA or SUPP during the elections held between 1970 and 1987. Table 7. 1979-1987 Sarawak State Elections: Constituencies won by SUPP and DAP in the Chinese-majority Constituencies of Sibu District During the 1970s, the opposition forces in Sarawak were considered extremely weak and fragmented. The DAP set foot in Sarawak politics around the end of Rahman 3 A by-election was held in 2010 after the decease of Sibu MP Robert Lau. The seat was then won by DAP candidate Wong Ho Len. 11
Yakub s rule. The party was introduced to Sarawak through the defectors of SUPP Sibu who then contested on the ticket of DAP in the state elections of 1979 but all were defeated. The first breakthrough was made in the parliamentary elections of 1982 in the constituencies of Kuching and Sibu. The initial victory of national-based DAP signaled an increased conscious of city voters especially the Chinese over national policies, which SUPP had failed to address. Another national-based opposition party, the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), entered the political landscape of Sarawak in 2001 and made its first breakthrough in Kuching in 2006 elections. The PKR is a multi-racial party which has also strived to work in the rural Dayak areas. The party won three Dayak-majority and a Chinese-majority seats in the 2011 state elections. Currently DAP and PKR have formed a coalition of Sarawak Pakatan Rakyat, which had captured 14 seats in the 2011 state elections of Sarawak. Research questions The thesis aims to probe the sources of political power and the domination patterns of BN in Sibu. Special attention is given to the political party of SUPP and the timber corporate magnates or towkays, and how their powers radiate down to local institutions such as local branches of political parties, local government, social associations and churches. Moreover, the study also explore the political attitudes and expressions of various social groups toward politics, and the resources and opportunities of clients to balance or even break the patronage relationship. More specifically, the following questions will be addressed: 1. Who are the political leaders of Sibu? What kinds of political, social and economic environments have produced the political leaders of Sibu? The sub questions for this part are: 1.1 During the Brookes rule, who were the recognized and cultural community leaders of Sibu communities and to what extent were they accepted by the Brooke government and their own communities? 1.2 Have the traditional leaders been replaced by new leaders in the post-malaysia (1963) period? If the answer is yes, then who are these new leaders? 1.3 What has been the impact of national politics on politics at the state and local levels? To what extent have features of national politics determined the kinds of leadership of Sibu? 1.4 How, and to what extent has the growth of the timber industry beginning from the 1960s reshaped the leadership of Sibu society? 1.5 What are the supporting cultural and social mechanisms that allow the wealthy personalities to penetrate politics and society in Sibu at the local level? 12
2. Specifically, how has the timber corporate power impacted upon the major political institutions of Sibu, including into the local government and the ruling party of SUPP, and how do they sustain their domination of those institutions? 3. How has timber corporate power asserted its influence over other social and cultural institutions like schools, churches and other social associations? 4. How do SUPP and DAP politicians reach down to the local population during and between elections? 4.1 Is developmentalism or ethnicism at work during and between elections as in the peninsula? 5. Regarding the people who refuse or reluctant to vote for SBN, the questions are: 5.1 What are their general socio-economic backgrounds? 5.2 How do they justify their choice? 5.3 Is the size of the group growing or shrinking? 5.4 Do they form organizations? If they do, what kinds of issues have been taken up by them? 6. What kinds of environment have facilitated the growth of the political opposition forces over the last decade? 6.1 What is the role of the new media in shaping the political communication of the public of Sibu? 6.2 What are the new civil society organizations emerged in the last decade and what are their main concerns? 6.3 What kinds of traditional organizations have actively participated in promoting the civic awareness? Research Methods The main research methods include documentary research, qualitative interviewing and qualitative field research. To construct the evolution history of Sibu society from the early nineteenth century to the pre-war period, I rely very much on official documents and the semi-official writings by the British officials. To obtain the collective narratives of various social groups of Sibu, I research the local newspapers and other local publications which are mostly published by clannish and religious associations. In addition to documentary research, this research also collect ethnographic data through in-depth interviews with recognized leaders, key persons of events and 13
institutions, as well as ordinary members of the various communities. For collective events such as elections, strikes, meetings, exhibitions and festive celebrations, the method of participation-observation is applied. In order to make a comparison between the political views of urban Chinese and other ethnic groups, I went through a short-term but intensive Iban language tuition and visited the Iban longhouse communities nearest to the Sibu town during the festive seasons. I also visited the Melanau families and villages during the Muslim festivals. Thesis outline This thesis will be divided into eight chapters, including the introduction and conclusion. Chapter One will discuss the research problem, conceptual framework and review the previous literature. At the same time, it will provide a brief background of Sarawak geography, colonial history, the contemporary political and social setting. It will also elaborate on the formatting of Sibu community and explain reasons why Sibu has been chosen as a case study. Chapter Two examines the development of post-war politics in Sarawak and how the global trade and British s political preferences had helped to maintain the political continuity. By intertwining the expansion of market economy in Asia, the pro-capitalism strategy of British officers and the leadership of businessmen-politicians in Sarawak, it explains the rise of different types of communal leaders which carried the similar characteristics of the communal leaders in the pre-war era. Chapter Three discusses the development of SUPP Sibu and the political opposition in both Sibu and Sarawak. It lays out the path of Sibu political leaders to the leadership of SUPP and the advancement of timber tycoons in SUPP politics. In the meantime, it investigates the fluctuation of political opposition in Sarawak. The chapter casts the SUPP actors, timber tycoons and opposition forces against the backdrop of Sarawak and national politics. It hopes to explore the influences of external politics on the local politics of Sibu. Chapter Four attempts to tackle the extra-institutional political activities and informal channels for communication occur in Sibu. In other words, it studies the incidents of vote-buying, election betting and gangster activities which are conducted outside the legal framework during elections. Meanwhile, it traces the gossip and rumours that spreading within the community, which is said to have influences on the electoral outcome. 14
Chapter Five examines how timber tycoons in Sibu assert their influences in the major social associations in Sibu such as the United Chinese Association of Sibu, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce and the united Chinese independent schools association. These associations have then become the external arms of SUPP during the 1980s and 1990s. Chapter Six investigates into the Christian institutions in Sibu and their relationship with the Chief Minister, the government, the SUPP leaders and the timber corporations. It traces the changes of political relationship between Christianity and Sarawak government and attempts to explain their pro-establishment attitude. Chapter Seven is an analysis of the 2011 Sarawak state elections held in the areas of Sibu. It compares the campaign strategies and issues of SUPP and DAP in Sibu and contends that the defeats of SUPP candidates including the tycoon-politicians reflect a fundamental change of political orientation among the urban voters. The last chapter examines the future of local politics in Sarawak in the midst of several trends including the growing opposition in the national politics, the consolidation of multi-racial political parties, the Islamization process and the globalization. 15