Sabah opposition’s tangled politics

ARCHIVES 2013

By admin-s On Apr 9, 2013

The multiple U-turns and what some would call deceptions, have only served to make Sabahans as suspicious of the motives of their leaders.

On-going skirmishes between the anti- and pro-Pakatan Rakyat parties and groupings have not subsided and firebrands on both sides continue to pelt each other with jibes, possibly torpedoing their chances of succeeding the current government in the process.

Myles Togoh, FMT

KOTA KINABALU: The tussle to be the “rightful” heirs to the Umno-led Barisan Nasional coalition government in Sabah, which has splintered the opposition into several stubborn camps, is pointing to a potential voter free-for-all in the approaching 13th general election.

A seat-sharing formula that will satisfy all parties remains log-jammed and time is running out to unify voters – disenchanted with the government – under one banner.

What has come instead into the minds of many voters, all of whom are aware how 99% of their leaders have constantly switched sides after singing a different pre-election tune, is the timeless question: who to trust?

The state-based Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) appears to have dealt itself out of a bargaining position, which perhaps it never really had, and is increasingly in danger of facing competition on multiple fronts.

SAPP’s singular demand that only it had a right to half or more of the 60 state assembly seats from the two it now holds after a series of defections has been declared “unreasonable” by Pakatan.

Pakatan Rakyat comprising PKR, PAS and the DAP along with the Sabah-based friendly groupings – Angkatan Perubahan Sabah (APS) and Pertubuhan Pakatan Perubahan Sabah (PPPS) headed by Wilfred Bumburing and Lajim Ukin respectively – insists that the seats should be shared equally by all six.

That means 10 seats for each. It’s a bitter pill for SAPP to swallow as it leaves the pro-Pakatan grouping as potential “kingmakers” and has caused party leader Yong Teck Lee to direct some choice caustic remarks at Bumburing and Lajim, his former Parti Bersatu Sabah colleagues.

Voters are well aware that all three are former Barisan Nasional supporters – Bumburing and Lajim as recently-turned BN MPs and Yong as a former Sabah chief minister.

Sabahans suspicious

Lurking on the sideline of all this power play for the “hearts and minds” of voters in Sabah and Sarawak is the unconventional Jeffrey Kitingan, the leader of the State Reform Party (STAR). He is adamant that no “Malayan” party should be allowed to contest in either state.

He, too, is not untainted given his ambiguous role in the downfall of PBS in 1994.

And PBS, no one can argue, was at that time the real thing: an authentic, homegrown Sabah party. All four were linked to its collapse and the Umno-led BN administration of the state.

Paradoxically, both Yong and Jeffrey are now at the forefront of resurrecting what many say they helped kill off.