摘要：The 2008 general election was a disastrous outing for the National Front(Barisan Nasional). The party not only failed to retain two third of the seats inthe national parliament but lost five states to the opposition. The defeat wasattributed to strong opposition politics which had created ‘political tsunami’of sorts and swept across several states which were formerly BN’s stronghold.The defeat in several states also marked the end of BN’s hegemony. It begs thequestion of whether BN is still relevant. Ironically Sarawak remained a bastionof BN and the party won all the parliamentary seats except one. BN’s win inSarawak was likened to a ‘blue waves’ (blue is the colour for BN’s flags) thatlike ‘political tsunami’ in Peninsular Malaysia had swept away all theopposition candidates except for Bandar Kuching. However, despite the bigwin in term of seats the support for BN in the urban areas declined greatly withsome of its candidates won with a slim majority. This article examines thecontestation between ‘blue waves’ and ‘political tsunami’ in Sarawak duringthe 2008 elections. The contestation is examined in the contexts of ‘politics ofdevelopmentalism’, which really impacted the electoral outcome in the ruralareas. ‘Politics of developmentalism’ is put into practice by using governmentprojects as patronage tools for sustaining and securing political support. Thisstrategy works well especially in the rural areas where politics is still verymuch driven by the urge to fulfill basic needs
关键词：Election; politics of development; patronage; Native Customary;Rights; opposition pact
