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In the last elections, Sabah won 24 out of 25 federal seats contested. This has prompted Sabah politicians to articulate demands for higher oil royalties and greater political repesentation. There have been rumours that if these demands are not met, some Barisan Nasional MPs in the state may leave the coalition, and form a new party which will then join the opposition. Radio Singapore International
Sabah has now gained importance on the Malaysian political scene following the last general election. After playing second fiddle to the Peninsula states for so long, it’s now a key state that could determine the fate of the Prime Minister and his party, Umno. What is at stake for the party in Sabah? What measures is it taking to address the problems there and pacify the demands of its local leaders? Stay tuned to Inside Malaysia as we look at Umno at the crossroads. I’m Saifulbahri Ismail.
Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi visited Sabah to launch the ‘Kaamatan’ celebrations or what is known as the harvest festival recently. For Sabahans, his visit was indeed a ‘bumper harvest’ when the Prime Minister announced a total of 13 initiatives to help the state in various areas. Among the more important changes, Mr Abdullah will be abolishing the federal department which had come under a lot of criticism. It was set up in 1991, to facilitate federal government development projects in Sabah. The task will now be moved to the local level with the setting up of a Sabah State Development Office. To boost rural development, the state will enjoy a special allocation of 1 billion Ringgit. Under a new allocation formula, a large percentage would go towards addressing the poverty rate. According to Fui K Soong, CEO of Institute of Strategic Analysis and Policy Research, who is a Sabahan herself, poverty is one of the critical issues in Sabah :
The most critical issue right now in Sabah is poverty. We came from the richest state back in the 70s, oil producing state back in the 70s, to the poorest state right now with over 30 per cent poverty rate, where the national average is only 5.1 per cent. Compared to wilayah KL, wilayah persekutuan, is 1.5. I’m not saying that there are no poor people in KL, there a lot of urban poors, but the thing is that one of the critical issues in Sabah right now is poverty.
Kuala Lumpur has pledged to reduce poverty in Sabah to 2.8 per cent by 2010. A focus group has been set up to eradicate poverty and to monitor and implement poverty eradication programmes. Another issue of much concern among Sabahans is the problem of illegal immigrants. There are about two million illegal immigrants in the state. Professor James Chin, political analyst, from Monash University Malaysian campus explains the reasons for this problem.
Well, there are several theories, if you speak to Sabahans, two theories seem to be very consistent. The first one was actually made by Barisan Nasional people themselves which is that a lot of these refugees are actually supporters of Umno, in other words they want to make Sabah into an Umno or Muslim majority state, that’s number one. Secondly, this is based on police reports filed by some politicians in Sabah, they alleged that there was a conspiracy to increase the Sabah population in terms of Muslim voters. So, I think these are the two main reasons why we see a huge number of illegal immigrants in Sabah.
During his two-day visit to Sabah, Mr Abdullah also promised to look into the problem of illegal immigrants. A Cabinet committee, to be chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak, together with several Sabah leaders will be set up to tackle this issue. However, Professor Chin is not convinced that a solution can be found.
The problem is that this problem has been there for 20 years so I doubt very much that you can find an instant solution. The major problem appears to be that, many of these illegal immigrants were issued with a Malaysian citizenship papers. In Malaysia if you’re a citizen you carry a small credit card, called MyCard, and a lot of these people were actually issued with MyCard sometime in the late 1980s. So, I think trying to remove these people will be very difficult.
While implementing these sweeping reforms may be difficult, it is seen as an effort by the federal government to act upon the demands of local leaders in Sabah. Still, Zaini Othman political analyst from University Sabah Malaysia, feels that the Peninsula government must find out what the grassroots really need.
Actually there is a split view between local Sabahan leaders. In fact within the Sabah Barisan Nasional itself there is split views between for example, in the case of to abolish the JPSS, Jabatan Pembangunan Persekutuan, there is a certain leader that maintained that there shouldn’t be any eliminating of that particular department. On the other hand, a few leaders say it must be abolished. So this is a split view. You know, politicians they always make their own demands, their self-interests demands. So, what the Barisan Nasional now need to do is to go deep down to the rakyat to look into the matter what is exactly the Sabahan rakyat need.
If you’ve just tuned in, you’re listening to Inside Malaysia on Radio Singapore International. We continue to look at Umno at the crossroads, this week focusing on developments in the oil rich but otherwise poor state of Sabah, which is seen now as the new broker in Malaysian politics. In the last elections, Sabah won 24 out of 25 federal seats contested. This has prompted Sabah politicians to articulate demands for higher oil royalties and greater political repesentation. There have been rumours that if these demands are not met, some Barisan Nasional MPs in the state may leave the coalition, and form a new party which will then join the opposition. Dr Maznah Mohamad, visiting senior research fellow at the Asia Reseach Institute in Singapore thinks that the East Malaysian politicians have much to gain:
Of course they are in very-very advantageous position now because they can mediate and negotiate with both parties, with Anwar Ibrahim as well as the Barisan Nasional now. They are the kingmakers at the moment, so it’s not even Anwar Ibrahim at the moment. So, Anwar can offer them all these things, to entice this parliamentarians to defect. On the other hand, I think the government under Pak Lah has also put together an attractive package to try to keep these Sabah and Sarawak politicians within the Barisan coalition. However, I think there is a risk here. So, if Pak Lah gives in too much to the East Malaysians, he will also alienate his own people, either within Umno or within the Barisan coalition because you just can’t give without taking away something from other place.
The opposition is taking advantage of the situation, luring East Malaysian politicians to cross-over, by offering them more royalties from Borneo’s natural resources, more development and more help for the poor, if they become government. However, Abdul Rahman Dahlan, secretary general of Umno’s youth wing believes that the threat of defection is not a problem:
Jumping into opposition, switching parties is actually not the real issue. That’s really to me is the symptom of the problem. The bigger issue here is that whether or not the central government, the federal government is listening to some of the grouses brought up by the members of parliament from Sabah and Sarawak. What they’ve been saying is that if the federal government do not listen to their grouses, then the option is jumping, even that they qualify by saying they’re not, by saying hey, those of you in the opposition please don’t get too excited yet, we’re not jumping. I think what they are trying to do is just to tell the federal government we have problems in Sabah as far as development is concerned, please look into it. So, the issue of joining the opposition party is really not an issue and also I must add, this is very unbecoming of Datuk Seri Anwar of trying to put up a so-called first class government in Malaysia but at the same time trying to bribe people to cross over.
So far, there is little indication of Sabah lawmakers crossing over to the opposition. The number of concessions made by Mr Abdullah may have appeased them for now. But what about the other East Malaysian state of Sarawak? Will the state leaders there also be putting pressure on Kuala Lumpur? Zaini Othman from University Sabah Malaysia with his view:
As for the Sarawak state, it’s a bit different with what the situation has in Sabah. The Sarawak state in the previous occasions they always have more quote unquote the autonomy compared to Sabah. So, I think as for Sarawak, Kuala Lumpur will not face as tough a problem that they face with Sabah at the moment.
Umno’s top leaders have met to draw up a recovery plan for the party. The concessions made to Sabah is yet another sign that the party is willing to take drastic measures to save itself. More changes can be expected in the weeks and months ahead.
That ends Inside Malaysia this week. I’m Saifulbahri Ismail for Radio Singapore International.
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