DECEMBER 4 — Sorry Singapore, you ain’t the kiasu capital of the world anymore. Sabah supplanted you over the weekend. In some style.

What was supposed to be a hung assembly with no majority in sight was swatted aside in a matter of hours through the ingenuity of a cabal of politicians who feel staying in power is far more critical than petty distractions like party beliefs or previous claims, challenges and diatribes or a month of campaign rhetoric or commitment to Sabah-first or the voters. 

Never the voters. They only count on election day, the rest of the time, they should just shut up.

But yes, the overpowering sensation among the elected representatives was to NEVER, EVER be left out of government.

FOMO, MF

This is how election day panned out.

GRS emerged with 29 assembly seats, and Warisan ran them close with 25. But neither with the requisite 37 to govern.

A hung house.

By convention, the governor asks the party with the highest count to forge a majority by talking to the others, including the runner-up.

How did the others fare?

BN managed six. STAR’s two, UPKO’s three; and KDM, Pakatan Harapan and Perikatan Nasional’s singles brought the minor parties’ count to 14. And then the five independents.

GRS presumably talks to the 19 and secures the eight necessary.

It takes days. For leaders to talk. For leaders to talk to their leadership. For leadership to suss the rank and file view of coalitions. For terms to be offered, considered and negotiated.

In the normal world where normal mortals walk the plains, perhaps. Not in the land of superhero politicians who possess sight beyond sight and the omniscience of Zeus. 

Like shopkeepers with abacuses, they decided without hesitation, after all participatory democracy hates dialogue.

It is not awesome for a state to be in a prolonged state of being hung. Belgium went at a snail’s pace of 652 days to form a coalition, from election in May 2019 to a government in October 2020. 

Almost two years without an actual government. Even a pandemic could not rush them from making suitable decisions. Or maybe they served the wrong truffles.

Nothing wrong with the kueh in Kota Kinabalu. Sabah reps struck a majority in a stupendous 10 hours after polling stations closed. 

Probably three hours after the last contest was called by the returning officer. How reliable are instant agreements? 

Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning feels like a documentary when the pace of action is compared to Sabah politicians: Permanent Reckoning.

The history for the record no one cares to read

History can be cruel.

In our own recent past, in 2022, it took five days. At the end of November 19, Malaysia’s 15th General Election, no party or coalition held a simple majority.

Rigorous chats with the various groups and parties ensued to reach an equitable arrangement, to ensure clear support and not one that collapses prematurely.

On November 24, Anwar was appointed as prime minister.

Sabah’s painful past urges the party with the initiative to push through soonest to a majority and swearing in — even if it is after clubs at KK’s waterfront are closed — few leaders want to wake up with fewer representatives than they had when they switched off their bedside lights.

History is manifold and Sabah politicians cannot only look at sabotage and forget alliances need basis, not just convenience. 

A future cannot be formulated purely by its fears rather than through grounded rationalisation of its present with an earnest view forward.

Six hundred minutes is a silly number of minutes to decide a structure to determine the quality of life for five million Sabahans. To decide in haste is to act foolishly.

Here’s Sabah’s recent and relevant history.

The past seven years was a calamitous charge for power. Two and half years of Warisan, two years of Perikatan Nasional (PN) which then transmogrified itself into Gerakan Rakyat Sabah via Parti Gagasan Rakyat Sabah so that it can discard Muhyiddin Yassin’s Bersatu and spend the next three years in bed with PN’s archenemy Pakatan Harapan and Barisan Nasional.

There are at least three acts of treachery for those with Sabah in their hearts to pause. 

Surely, they understand rushed decisions lend to Sabah’s prolonged status as a political mental asylum. 

Holding lunatics constantly at odds and conspiring their own political rise by means foul more than fair.

Consider the actors recruited.

We’re back

The full Cabinet with deputy ministers is 28 persons. One-third of the elected representatives hold executive positions. Six more representatives are appointed to ensure the majority is sturdier.

The characters.

Rina Jainal won Kukusan in 2020 for Warisan, left the party in 2022 ostensibly for GRS, becomes deputy president of Harapan Rakyat inside the coalition, gets sacked from the party three weeks ago, contests anyway as an Independent two weeks ago, won on Saturday and backed the GRS that she just beat a couple of hours before, and today is a state assistant minister. Would she have issues with Hajiji, would she be open to other options, would she be loyal?

Just like Rina, Awang Ahmad Sah Sahari left Warisan in 2023 after winning the Petagas seat in 2020 to join GRS. The folks in GRS were not so excited about him, as evidenced by him being refused the right to contest under the banner. 

He exits, beats the GRS candidate and is now an assistant minister in the GRS government. Incidentally, he lost his first Petagas race in 2013 as a STAR candidate. Can he find other ways to colour up his CV? Do not doubt him.

Fairuz Renndan, the Pintasan incumbent was set aside to let the dinosaur Pandikar Amin contest. Fairuz chose to not accept his fate. 

As an Independent he defeated Pandikar. The sane would assume when he fought the coalition he’d be sacked as party member. Instead, he is now an assistant minister.

Maijol Mahap lost three parliamentary races since 1999, and decided to fight his own GRS as an Independent state candidate and won with just 22 per cent of the votes, only slightly more than 1 in 5 voters in Bandau wanted him. He’s assistant minister now, a bundle of loyalty.

Jude Ellron, was the STAR candidate for Tulid as late as October until party president Jeffery Kitingan changed his mind. 

Jude tried anyway as an Independent carrying the mangosteen symbol and beat all other 13 opponents in the most-packed race. He is an assistant minister in support of GRS, which his former party opposes.

Jamawi Jaafar travels through Umno, Warisan, Umno, GRS and PKR inside seven years, and gets rewarded for his volatility with a win in Melalap. He is now a minister. Hajiji has no worries absorbing a fresh dissident.

Mohd Ishak Ayub is the STAR assemblyman for Bingkor. STAR is opposed to the Peninsular-minded GRS. However, Hajiji names him as an assistant minister. 

Kitingan says while STAR is in the opposition, he is amenable for his only other colleague in the Sabah assembly to assume an executive role in the government he opposes. 

So, Ishak supports GRS half the week and the rest of it opposes GRS as a loyal opposition member?

How that makes sense is beyond any political science textbook. How Kitingan, Ishak and Hajiji act like it is normal behaviour is beyond any etiquette protocol.

To top it off, Umno-BN which vilified GRS constantly since it lost reps before to GRS, and vowed to displace, timidly took its place in the GRS government it loathes. 

Jafry Arifin, Umno’s Sukau rep, is giddy like a schoolboy to serve under Hajiji which his party previously chastised.

And UPKO, oh my, UPKO. They say Sabah-first before anything, for that is why they left the Pakatan Harapan coalition. Not really, actually. 

Now that their president is one of the three deputy chief ministers, supporting the Semenanjung-friendly GRS is just fine for them.

The majority that Sabah deserves

Off they go with this speed majority. As it stands only Warisan and the half of STAR’s two reps stand opposed to Hajiji and his merry men. 

Literally, men. Because three of the five elected women — Isnaraissah Munirah Majilis (Usukan), Edna Jessica Majimbun (Inanam) and Nurulalsah Hasan Alban (Sungai Sibuga) — are in Warisan, the opposition.

The only constant in Sabah, based on the pain of being in opposition, is to find a way to power, sooner rather than later. 

Kitingan is too old, and Shafie Apdal is no spring chicken. But for the up and coming in Warisan, is a stay in opposition for five years sensible? Can they not use the voters as the excuse to exit?

There are village feasts and festivals to hold, and the start of school stationery with bags to supply. The floods are not imaginary, and jobs are a nightmare.  

The speed majority game with the added nominated assemblymen turns into a supermajority game — 53 reps — if PN’s lone rep Aliakbar Gulasan backs Hajiji. 

The PAS man appears indifferent about GRS’ 2022 betrayal. A long-term memory is not helpful in Sabah politics. At this rate, even a short-term memory is a liability.

Sabah is a bellwether from the 1960s. What happens there eventually is realised in Putrajaya. 

How rock solid does Malaysian democracy fancy itself now, less than two years to a general election?

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.