IF the US elections were all about turning battleground states "red" or "blue" by the Democrats and Republicans, Malaysia may be getting its own battleground state here in Sarawak.
The Land of the Hornbills remains the only state where state and general elections are not held simultaneously.
With his ambition to become prime minister by the last Malaysia Day thwarted, opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's next best shot at capturing the national government before the next general election may be the Sarawak state elections in 2010.
Sure enough, Anwar was opening new party branches and accepting new members over the weekend, in the process netting Ngemah state assemblyman Gabriel Adit Demong.
Gabriel was a vice-president of the now defunct Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak.
This may signal interesting times for the state in the run-up to the next state elections.
On the surface, Sarawak may appear an impregnable Barisan Nasional fortress. In the March 8 general election, the state lost only one of its 30 parliamentary seats to the opposition and, thus, held the balance of national power.
Anwar's strategy must be to exploit a populace growing tired of a state government featuring practically the same line-up in every election.
If he succeeds in winning the state government, the parliamentary equation he has been seeking may be within his grasp.
He is good at exploiting the soft underbelly of the state BN: the volatile Dayak vote.
The Dayak electorate has not been able to harness its large population into putting one of its own in the chief minister's chair since the early years of Malaysia, mainly because its political strength has been dissipated by splits and infighting.
Into the breach comes Anwar, promising that the next chief minister will be a Dayak should the opposition succeed in unseating the state BN government.
That should prove a rallying cry for Dayak political contenders and voters.
But Sarawak BN will not give up without a fight, of course, and those who underestimate the political astuteness of Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud do so at their own risk.
All eyes will now turn to an expected state cabinet reshuffle early next year.
It may well be the only opportunity left for Taib to clarify his succession and provide political rejuvenation ahead of the next state polls.
However, the options for him look limited.
He must know that the strongest card the opposition will play is the theme of "change" it used to such devastating effect in the March polls, and which US President-elect Barack Obama used to capture not just America's mood but the entire world's.
If the state BN does not change, this may play into the opposition's hands.
At the same time, the global economic slowdown, the full force of which is expected to hit the state next year, may make short shrift of any claims of the benefits of continuing with the tried-and-tested state administration.
Sarawak's next state elections will be keenly watched. State politicians will find out what effects the March general election will have had on state voters. National politicians will want to divine how the national electorate will vote in the next general election. The stakes are high for the state and the country.
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