In KDM heartlands, Shafie counts on Upko to deliver

SABAH POLLS | After the 14th general election (GE14) in 2018, Sabah faced a hung assembly with both BN and Warisan Plus having 29 seats under their belts.

When Parti Solidariti Tanah Airku (Star), which had won two seats, threw its support behind BN and boosted the coalition’s number of seats to 31, it seemed like BN was on the course to gain power in Sabah again.

But then, the United Progressive Kinabalu Organisation (Upko), which won five seats, became the deciding factor when it decided to ditch BN in favour of Warisan, a move which helped provide Warisan with enough seats to form the Sabah government.

Just two years later, Upko, which will be contesting for the first time outside of BN, will have to prove that it can maintain its voter base among the Kadazan Dusun Murut (KDM) community and play a pivotal role in the Warisan Plus coalition in this election.

Upko is a splinter party from Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), and it was previously known as a Kadazan Dusun Murut-based party. It used the name United Pasokmomogun Kadazan Murut Organisation before rebranding itself into a more inclusive party in 2019, and it has maintained itself as a local-based party that continues to serve its core voter base within the Kadazan Dusun Murut community.

Wilfred Madius Tangau

This time, working with Warisan, Upko president Wilfred Madius Tangau said there are two options clearly laid out before Sabahan voters in this election.

“The option we are presenting to the people is that we want to form a government led by local-based parties.

“This is something we have seen happen in Sarawak for many years. They have been very successful in administering the state. There has never been a dominant party from the peninsula leading the state government in Sarawak.

“On the other side, the option they are presenting is a state government led by Peninsular-based parties,” Madius told Malaysiakini in an interview at the Upko office in Tuaran.

For the second time since its inception, Upko will be contesting and in this election, it will be fielding candidates in 12 seats, all of which have a majority Kadazan Dusun Murut community.

These seats are Bengkoka, Tandek, Kadamaian, Kiulu, Kuala Penyu, Paginatan, Tambunan, Kemabong, Nabawan, Telupid, Labuk and Kuamut.

This is double the number of seats Upko contested in the previous election, but Madius said it was actually hoping for more seat allocation this time around as he feels his party is very prepared.

Madius, who is also the Tuaran MP, said his party would have loved to contest in multi-racial seats but it had yet to be given the opportunity.

KDM seats - Warisan’s Achilles heel

In 2018, Upko had one of the better win-rates for Sabah BN, winning five out of six state assembly seats assigned. This time, it will have double the amount of candidates.

“Upko is contesting 12 seats and our role is to deliver the 12 seats… All the seats given to us are solid Kadazan Dusun Murut seats.

“In the last election, Warisan was only able to win three seats in Kadazan Dusun Murut (areas), so we want to deliver these 12 seats,” said Madius.

Madius is contesting in his birthplace of Kiulu, where he will face PBS information chief and incumbent Joniston Bangkuai.

This will be the first time the four-term Tuaran MP is contesting in a state seat.

Madius also once served as the science, technology and innovation minister under former premier Najib Abdul Razak's administration. Under the Warisan state government, he was the Sabah deputy chief minister.

Madius, who is the third candidate on the Kiulu ballot, has adopted the "I love you" gesture from sign language during his campaign in the constituency as an easy reminder of which candidate to vote for.

But Madius is not only campaigning in Kiulu as Upko has also promised its allies to help them campaign in other Kadazan Dusun Murut areas.

One such example is the majority Kadazan Dusun Murut seat in Tamparuli, where PKR will contest against PBS, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Parti Cinta Sabah (PCS).

PKR candidate Alijus Sipil will face a tough fight in that seat as he will be going up against PBS’ secretary-general and incumbent Jahid Jahim who won with slightly over 50 percent of the vote share in a four-cornered fight in the last election.

Although Upko had been eyeing the Tamparuli seat, Madius said he had told Sabah PKR chief Christina Liew that they would “go all out” to assist PKR in winning the seat.

Upko has already started campaigning in that constituency, with Madius making an appearance at a ceramah with Upko machinery at the Tamparuli multipurpose hall with Alijus on Monday.

The 'PTI' shadow

Speaking to a crowd of about 100 people, Madius started his speech in a soft-spoken manner about Upko’s cooperation with Warisan and their other allies, explaining the process of their seat negotiations among other things.

As the speech went on, he became more passionate as he spoke about the issue of undocumented migrants (PTI) and how he believes the problem was exacerbated by Umno and BN.

This is a jarring message coming from Upko who had previously accused Warisan of being involved with the PTI, back when the party was still under BN.

But Madius told Malaysiakini that he had never once accused Warisan president Shafie Apdal of being personally involved in the matter.

Rather, he explained, it was due to Warisan’s cooperation at that time with Dr Mahathir Mohamad, whom he claimed to have perpetuated the PTI issue during the latter’s first tenure as prime minister.

Now, Upko is trying to unravel this message it had once propagated among the Kadazan Dusun Murut community.

“In the Kadazan Dusun Murut heartlands, they have some confusion. There was an accusation saying that Warisan is a party of undocumented migrants and that they are friendly towards the PTI.

“Kadazan Dusun Murut voters are a bit confused on this, and this is one of the major issues.

“We in Upko have done our best to explain, ‘look is that the truth’?

“If they want to punish anyone when it comes to the issue of undocumented migrants, it is Umno who should be punished. Punish them by not voting for them,” Madius said.

Not 'traitors'

Another accusation rampant within the Kadazan Dusun Murut community is that the top civil servants in Shafie’s government are all from Semporna, which is Shafie’s stronghold.

Upko is also trying to counter this message, with Madius pointing out that seven out of ten ministries in Sabah have permanent secretaries who are from the Kadazan Dusun Murut community.

It may not be so easy for Upko to play its role among the Kadazan Dusun Murut community, as there appears to be lingering distrust over the party’s decision to defect from BN to Warisan in 2018.

Hajiji Mohd Noor

Back in the majority Kadazan Dusun Murut seat of Tamparuli, during a ceramah featuring Jahid, along with Bersatu Sabah chief Hajiji Mohd Noor and Bersatu supreme council member Azmin Ali, the crowd appeared to be hostile against Madius.

Hajiji in his speech had blamed Madius, saying Sabah would not be in its current situation if the latter had not defected in 2018. This elicited jeers and calls of “traitor” from the crowd of about 150 people.

Later, when Azmin mentioned the word "traitor" during his speech, someone from the crowd had also shouted out Madius’ name.

But Madius told Malaysiakini that the issue of being a traitor does not arise as Upko was merely bowing down to the people’s mandate for change in 2018.

Besides, he said, Upko has always been very consistent in its stand on whatever issue they have taken up, such as state rights, undocumented migrants and other issues pertaining to the Kadazan Dusun Murut community.

Ultimately, Upko’s goal in the Kadazan Dusun Murut heartland is to make sure that the community feels they are being included and prioritised if Warisan Plus was to form the state government again.

“We want to make sure that the Kadazan Dusun Murut feel that they have a place under the Sabahan sun,” Madius said.

Whether Upko can fulfil its promise to deliver Kadazan Dusun Murut support to the Warisan Plus coalition remains to be seen, as the campaign is still in its early stages. - Mkini