From Permatang Pauh to Sarawak?

Malaysiakini featured a report that Anwar Ibrahim, who has promised to take control of Parliament and form a new government by Sept 16, has called for change in Sarawak, saying the East Malaysian state has been dominated by one man - chief minister Taib Mahmud - for too long.

"There must be change, nobody should stay too long and control everything," he told Malaysiakini when met at the sidelines of his campaign for the Permatang Pauh by-election.

"You cannot afford to have a gap that is too wide between the rich and poor," he added.

The opposition holds only 9 seats in the Sarawak State Assembly, while BN has 62.

But according to Anwar, rumblings of discontent are growing louder and the time is now ripe to make headway there with his reformation agenda of bringing change to the existing political, judiciary and socio-economic systems.

Read the full Malaysiakini report here.

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Anwar has clearly begun to look beyond Permatang Pauh towards a broader agenda that, he hopes, will tap into a rich seam of discontentment in Sarawak. Pakatan Rakyat is obviously hopeful that Sarawak will be able to contribute to the number of crossover MPs.

Whether Anwar can parlay the simmering discontent in Sarawak into a groundswell of crossovers is a matter that all Malaysians are watching with increasing excitement.

In Pakatan's endeavours to engineer the crossovers, they are assisted in no small measure by the seeming inability or outright refusal by the UMNO-led Barisan Nasional, to institute genuine reforms to make the police force more accountable; make the process of judicial appointments more transparent and meritocratic; and, manage the increasingly negative economic sentiments in Malaysia.