Electoral politics and political participation of the Orang Ulu in Sarawak

Orang Ulu is a minority community in Sarawak with unique customs and culture. In terms of electoral geographic location the majority of them live as voters in Sarawak’s four areas of the State Legislative Assembly (DUN), namely, Belaga Ba kelalan, Telang Usan and Batu Danau representing respectively the central, eastern and northern interiors of the state. Remoteness and lack of exposure to modernization had resulted in a relative marginalization of their political views .However, young and educated Orang Ulu who had migrated from their original villages have begun to change and adapt their way of thinking to that of the larger , more exposed rural communities. Hence, the purpose of this article is to analyze the recent patterns and dynamics of the Orang Ulu political perception and participation as revealed in the 2011 state election. Results of field questionnaires and observations conducted for this study indicated that 83.8 per cent of the sampled Orang Ulu professed their support and internalization of the BN political battle cry 1 Malaysia: People First, Performance Now. In terms of governance, 68.8 percent of them perceived that all elected representatives and ministers had satisfactorily fulfilled their Key Performance Indicator (KPI) requirements, hence their continued support for the the Prime Minister s leadership in strengthening thedevelopment of the country. In terms of political behaviour, 78.0 percent of the sampled Orang Ulu said they had registered as voters with five percent of them identifying themselves as PBB members, 13.8 percent SPDP, 8.8 percent PRS, 3.8 percent SNAP and 5.0 percent PKR . This left 63.8 percent of them declaring their nonmembership of any political party who, nevertheless, expected the rule of BN to continue in Sarawak for the foreseeable future.