Abstract
ABSTRACTThis paper examines Barisan Nasional’s (BN) surprise defeat in six rural constituencies in Sarawak, namely Selangau, Lubok Antu, Julau, Saratok, Puncak Borneo and Mas Gading, in Malaysia’s recent election in May 2018. Interestingly, all these are Dayak-majority constituencies, with the Dayak Iban dominating Selangau, Saratok, Julau and Lubok Antu, and Dayak Bidayuh outnumbering others in Puncak Borneo and Mas Gading. Four of these were won by the new federal ruling coalition, Pakatan Harapan (PH), and two others by independent candidates representing dissenting voices in the BN. While not comparable to the ‘Malay tsunami’ on the Malaysian Peninsula in scale and impact, the electoral shift of the Dayaks may shed light on some long-standing issues in Sarawak politics such as patronage, native customary rights land, the inter- and intra-coalition conflicts among the BN component parties as well as PH’s appeals to the people of Sarawak.
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