Sabah Election Is Test of Economic Confidence : Malaysia Leaders Court Voters in Remote State
International Herald Tribune
March 11, 1999
Thomas Fuller

They have come to this remote, northern corner of Borneo by the planeload, hundreds of briefcase-carrying government officials from Kuala Lumpur, eager to capture this often rebellious state in the first electoral test since economic crisis struck Malaysia 20 months ago.

The importance that the government attaches to the state election here Friday and Saturday is obvious from the number of times that Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad has shuttled across the South China Sea in recent months.

On Wednesday, Mr. Mahathir arrived for his fourth visit to the state of Sabah since December.

A victory here could provide Mr. Mahathir and his coalition partners with key support, mitigating the damage done to his party following a leadership struggle with his former deputy and protégé, Anwar Ibrahim.

The outcome of Sabah's election, Mr. Mahathir has said, will also determine the timing of national elections — they must be called before April 2000 — and the strategy the government will adopt to keep its two-thirds majority in the national Parliament.

Despite the importance that has been placed in the election, Sabah is an awkward bellwether.

As the economy on the peninsula shrank last year by about 6 percent, in Sabah it grew by about 1 percent, buoyed by the state's plantation sector and timber industry.

Politics, too, revolve around issues that are foreign to the peninsula. Mr. Anwar's dismissal and ongoing trial — an emotionally-charged issue that has led to Kuala Lumpur's most serious political crisis in decades — causes barely a ripple here.

"A thousand miles across the South China Sea is not just a geographical thing," says Valentine Willie, a Sabah-born lawyer, who now lives in Kuala Lumpur. "It's also a state of mind. People tend to forget that."

Politics in Sabah often hinge on basic needs: paved roads and access to telephones and electricity. Sabah is rich in oil and timber, but the majority of the state's residents are poor, especially those in the hinterland.

Gisin Lombut, the government's candidate in the rural constituency of Kiulu, estimates that the average monthly family income in his district is around 300 ringgit ($78.95 )

With such low income levels, parties often distribute things like water tanks or cooking gas canisters — or cash — in an effort to garner votes.

But perhaps Mr. Mahathir's biggest challenge in Sabah is overcoming the resentment that many Sabahans harbor toward the government. Many residents of the resource-rich state say they feel they are being colonized by Kuala Lumpur, an ironic twist for Mr. Mahathir, who often warns that Malaysia could undergo neocolonization by the West.

For his part, Mr. Mahathir has made it clear that if he loses in Sabah, federal aid to the state will be curtailed.

"We will only give to the BN government in Sabah," he said last week, referring to his coalition, the Barisan Nasional. "We will not help the opposition since we do not receive any assistance from them."

The comments angered Joseph Pairin Kitingan, the leader of the state's biggest ethnic group and the main challenger to Mr. Mahathir's coalition. "This state is part of Malaysia," he said Tuesday. "The people are taxpayers."

He added: "You can criticize America for imposing sanctions on Iraq but you should not impose sanctions on one of your own states." The contrast between Mr. Mahathir's and Mr. Pairin's campaign styles is striking.

Mr. Mahathir and other top ministers talk in plain terms of money and development for Sabah.

Mr. Pairin and other members of his party appeal to sentiment and justice for the state. When Mr. Pairin emerges from his car at party rallies, his supporters shout "Unity!" They mean unity for Sabah.

But Mr. Pairin and Mr. Mahathir are not the only ringleaders in an election that has already taken on a circus atmosphere, with posters and banners crowding almost every intersection here and lining even the most remote rural road.

There is a third major party led by a former chief minister, Harris Salleh, and dozens of other contenders from more obscure parties, not to mention independents. All told, there are 199 candidates for 48 seats.

With no tradition of opinion polls in Malaysia, predicting an election's outcome is often just speculation, especially in Sabah. Perhaps one leg up for Mr. Mahathir's party is the redrawn electoral map, which was completed in 1995.

Sabah now has more Muslim-dominated districts, which going by "peninsular logic" would seem to benefit Mr. Mahathir's Muslim party.

But in a state with 29 ethnic groups and plenty of intermarriage, voters are said to be less driven by racial or religious considerations than on the peninsula.

"A lot of Muslim friends of mine have family members in three different parties," said Mr. Valentine, the lawyer. "That's the extent of the confusion."

If the last elections are anything to go by, the final make-up of the state legislature might not be known for weeks.

In 1994, Mr. Pairin's party won 25 seats and Mr. Mahathir's coalition 23. But Mr. Pairin's government fell a month later, after party members defected to Mr. Mahathir's side.

Copyright © 2006 the International Herald Tribune