KOTA KINABALU, Sept 8 — Five independent candidates here are hoping to beat the odds and win over Sabah’s city voters in the statewide election that is just three weeks away.
The five are Achmad Noorasyrul Noortaip for Inanam, Sim Sie Hong for Api Api, Michelle Chin Ling Ling for Luyang, Jan Chow Yee Fah for Tanjung Aru and Melanie Chia for Likas.
The five state constituencies geographically fall under the city boundary of the state capital of Kota Kinabalu.
The five called themselves the Independent Candidate Alliance and are led by Chia, a former Sabah Progressive Party deputy president.
Achmad, 33, is a businessman who wants to represent the voice of the youth, Sim is a 55-year-old architect who wants to bring his years of professional experience in town and urban planning to help the city, while Chin and Chow are experienced in non-governmental organisation work and say their resourcefulness will go a long way in helping their constituencies if elected.
“For us, the financial backing is not important. As NGOs we are used to finding investors and funding to help run projects. In our experience, it is about finding someone willing to do the work and be part of the system,” Chow told a news conference here today.
The five said they were willing to share their platform with other independent candidates across the state if their aspirations were aligned.
“The turn of events in the past two years have brought about much maturity among the voters and this is the way forward for us. There is also a growing awareness of the important role that can be played by the independent candidates,” Chia said.
She noted a trust deficit and general apathy towards politicians due to party crossovers and pledged the five independent candidates will remain true to their causes.
“There is still a general feeling of distrust towards the independent candidates with the perception that they will surely join a political party in power.
“We should look at examples of independent candidates around the world and it is noted that they often remain steadfast in their status. And it is the same with us, we have pledged to be steadfast in our status. We hope this pledge will resonate with other independent candidates around Sabah,” she said.
Chia added that if the election result fails to show a clear winner in order to form a state government, the independents will offer its support to the party that most shares its values, without joining them as members.
“In the case of a hung assembly and numbers were needed to form a government, we would support the party that is aligned with our vision, but that does not mean we will join them (as members),” she said.
Chia, a former state assistant minister and Luyang assemblyman, said that a survey by a local think tank showed that some 17 per cent of respondents were open to voting for an independent, which spurred their confidence.
She also said that their strengths lied in urban areas where their services would be more about providing conducive business environments and solving urban planning and local government issues and not just bringing in projects.
“In urban areas, it is more possible for an independent candidate to be successful without the backing of a big party. It will be more challenging in a rural area,” she said when asked about the lack of political and financial backing that being with a big party could provide.
“As independent candidates, we are answerable only to our voters. We can fully focus on our respective constituencies and on our voters as we do not need to spend time on party politicking,” she said.
*A previous version of this story contained an error which has since been corrected.
