COMMENTARY, Dec 27 — The upcoming Kimanis by-election will be a test of sorts for Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal.
Winning the parliamentary seat on January 18 will be his first “political task” for Pakatan Harapan (PH).
The 50-50 winnable seat is also being seen as a touchstone for how accepted Shafie as well as Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad are by the people of Sabah.
A win will of course be a “gift” to Dr Mahathir whose ruling coalition lost four by-elections in a row resulting in PH leaders pointing fingers at each other.
Even worse, some leaders in the coalition pointed their fingers at Dr Mahathir’s “directionless” leadership which they said made them vulnerable and an easy target for the Opposition Barisan Nasional (BN) and PAS.
The chief minister of the Parti Warisan Sabah-led government is PH friendly and winning Kimanis would most certainly boost Dr Mahathir’s image as well as PH’s.
Shafie’s task is to stop BN’s winning streak and at the very least dampen the fighting spirit of the Opposition in the state although the new government has yet to make any changes that benefit Sabahans since the historic GE14 19 months ago.
It is not an easy task given the electorate is mixed with 52 per cent Bumiputra Muslims, 41 per cent non-Muslim Bumiputra and about 6 per cent Chinese.
On top of that, Datuk Seri Anifah Aman who has held the seat since 2004 has won the hearts and minds of the constituents.
The main issue likely to be raised is Sabah’s rights under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), a thorny issue that gives the state government the autonomy to chart the state’s own direction.
The “Sabah for Sabahans” slogan had been used to rally the people during GE14 and helped Warisan win but the last 19 months has not seen any progress.
Race and religion are non-issues in multi-racial and multi-religious Sabah where the people live harmoniously regardless of their differences as they hold on to one culture — the Sabah culture.
Candidates will play an important role in this suburban constituency which makes the contesting parties — Warisan and Umno — very cautious about picking the right person.
Warisan may field its former candidate Karim Bujang who is well known among the constituents while BN is still looking around as Anifah is not contesting.
The Kimanis parliamentary seat became vacant when the Election Commission declared the seat vacant on December 2.
The Federal Court upheld the commission’s decision on December 9 following an appeal by Anifah.
Kimanis, located on the west coast of Sabah, is about two hours’ drive from Kota Kinabalu and covers two state constituencies — Membakut and Bongawan.
