WHICH BN ‘VERSION’ WILL SABAHANS CHOOSE?

By : SELVARAJA SOMIAH

MOST ANALYSTS assume that the Sabah opposition’s main dilemma is between “Sabah Rights” and a more centrist position. But, arguably, this is not its biggest dilemma.

It will never be able to persuade diehard antagonists who think that Sabah joining the federation in 1963 to form Malaysia is a mistake.

Regrettable as it might be, it can probably get away with a game of calculated ambiguity, so long as it is not deeply polarising.

Its main dilemma then is that Malaya does not understand what federalism means for Sabah politics.

If politics has become genuinely federal, then there are implications for how political parties are organised.

In an ideal situation, state-level leaders and units have to believe that there is a symbiotic relationship between them and the leadership in Putrajaya.

Association with the Putrajaya leadership enhances the prospects of local units.

But if the Putrajaya leadership does not significantly add to the state units’ prospects, or worse still, becomes a liability (like during the Parti Bersatu Sabah days), then the central high command has little authority over the state.

On the other hand, a party composed entirely of state units can have no coherence at the centre, and cannot project itself as a national party, like in Sarawak.

This thus is the basic structural dilemma faced by the Sabah opposition.

Leadership crisis in Sabah PKR

Sabah opposition is, for all practical purposes, a collection of four parties – Malaya-based DAP and PKR and Borneo-based State Reform Party (STAR) and Sabah Progressive People’s Party (SAPP).

Except for STAR’s Jeffrey Kitingan and SAPP’s Yong Teck Lee who can be considered local leaders, PKR and DAP do not have anyone except Anwar Ibrahim who isn’t a local himself.

So the question of who is going to lead the Sabah opposition becomes an issue.

To complicate matters, PKR in Sabah is undergoing a leadership crisis. Anwar and his cronies have meddled and presented Azmin Ali (Deputy President), also an outsider, as a solution to a headless PKR in Sabah.

Clearly, the Sabah opposition’s problem is that it has no charismatic local leader of any kind to take up the reins, altogether failing to see that the average age of its cadres does not reflect the new Sabah.

Since Yong’s myopic misjudgment in the Batu Sapi parliamentary by-election in 2010, the Sabah opposition has been groping in the dark for a leader.

There is a great clamour for Lajim Ukin now. However, even if we grant him administrative acumen, his ability to give the Sabah opposition a direction is limited.

Lajim has got too much political baggage. He will have to come up with some spectacularly convincing gesture of contrition to be acceptable to Pakatan Rakyat and its potential allies in Sabah.

There is also a curious and potentially fatal omission in his strategy to make himself acceptable.

Opposition front needs reforms

Sabahans still see him as an Umno member and Lajim has not made any special initiative to campaign in Sabah.

If he is a potential chief minister, his energies would have been directed to mass engagement across the state. He remains a question mark in everyone’s mind.

The only long-term solution for the Sabah opposition front is to have a serious institutional reform on how it is run.

But no incumbent leader wants this and there is the paradox that a leader must first acquire authority to do this within current institutional rules.

It is said, with some justification, that any party that wins in Sabah will look a bit like the Barisan National. But the real issue is, which BN – the idea or its debased version?

(NOTE : Selvaraja Somiah is a geologist and freelance writer)