PETALING JAYA: Perikatan Nasional secretary-general Azmin Ali is effectively downplaying Sabah’s political reality by assuming that DAP’s trouncing in the Sabah state election meant it was entirely rejected by the Chinese and business communities, says an analyst.
Bilcher Bala of Universiti Malaysia Sabah said the Sabahan Chinese rejection of DAP was more a rejection of parties that failed to champion Sabah and its rights.
In state elections, Sabahans generally cared more about whether a political party could champion the state’s issues rather than just national-level reform agendas, Bilcher said.
He said Azmin had misread Sabahan voters’ sentiments when he stated that the main factor behind DAP’s defeats was the failures of Putrajaya in implementing reforms.
“His conclusions are inadequate as they ignore the local factors that dominate (Sabahans’) voting patterns. They ignore the deeper dimensions of local politics (in Sabah),” he told FMT.
On Wednesday, Azmin said the results of the Sabah state election showed the Chinese business community had rejected DAP and Pakatan Harapan. He said this signalled a growing demand for political and economic change.
Following its wipeout, DAP said it would gather feedback and work with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, the PH chairman, to accelerate the reform agenda in the federal government.
It was all about GRS vs Warisan
Sabahan activist Johan Ariffin Samad said the Sabah election was merely a battle between two local parties: Gabungan Rakyat Sabah and Warisan. The other West Malaysian parties, such as PH, PN and Barisan Nasional, were casualties of the battle, he said..
He said opposition politicians in the peninsula were trying to exploit the results by framing them as a rejection of Anwar and PH, as well as a sign of how the next general election will pan out.
He believed there was no need to read too much into the results, reiterating that the main contenders were always just GRS and Warisan.
Johan and Bilcher said peninsula-based parties must gain a better understanding of Sabah politics, especially the importance of fulfilling the Malaysian Agreement 1963. “If they can’t understand MA63, how do they expect to understand our society?” said Johan.
Azmin has a point
Lee Kuok Tiung, also of UMS, believes that there was some merit to Azmin’s statement.
He said the Sabahan Chinese rejection of DAP and PH involved both Sabah-centric sentiments and disgruntlement with issues like the cost of living, recognition of the Unified Examination Certificate issued by Chinese-medium schools, and other key reforms pledged in past election manifestos.
Nonetheless, Lee said, the issue of Sabah’s entitlement to 40% of federal revenue derived from the state was “fresh out of the oven” while some leaders from West Malaysia had clearly belittled the demand.
“When this was combined with other issues involving Sabah’s autonomy, including Sabah’s position as an equal partner (of the federation with Malaya and Sarawak), it snowballed into a protest vote to teach the national parties a lesson,” he said.
Lee said PH needs to look into revamping its leadership and pledges for Malaysians as it risked suffering the same fate as BN, which has been on the decline since it fell out of power in the 2018 general election.
