A party of order of stability, and a party of progress or reform, are both necessary elements of a healthy state of political life.
— John Stuart Mill, English political economist
Apparently, there’s something brewing in the political ranks of Sabah as certain quarters attempt to unseat the Sabah chief minister and topple the state government.
While on the micro scale, the impact would only be on Sabah — isolated from the political world of Malaysia as a whole — it could be more than that.
Time and time again, we saw that it the littlest of political ploy would cause a ripple which would bring about severe repercussions to the highest level.
On Thursday, the rumoured move to topple the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) state government and chief minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor did not come to fruition after a surprise press conference believed to announce it was “postponed until further notice”.
National daily Malay Mail reported that talks between Parti Warisan and Barisan Nasional (BN) coming together to form a majority to take over from Hajiji apparently did not materialise.
Earlier, it was widely speculated that the two parties, who together would form a near majority of the 79-seat state assembly, would announce their intention to take over the state.
Warisan has 19 state assemblymen while BN has 17. GRS has 29.
A GRS leader speaking to national portal FMT described the move to unseat Hajiji as the work of “pirates and plunderers”.
“Enough is enough. They have to go,” said the leader who declined to be named. “Now they have been exposed. Everyone in Sabah knows who tried to topple Hajiji. They are ‘desperados’.”
The GRS leader also pointed out that plots which threaten Sabah’s political stability will have an impact on the stability of the unity government in Putrajaya.
Sabah’s political situation since the 14th general election (GE14) has been marred by a number of crises, notably during the conclusion of GE14 in 2018 where two chief ministers were sworn in about 48 hours apart.
The first was then sitting chief minister Tan Sri Musa Aman and the second was Warisan president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal.
Both Musa and Shafie claimed they had the majority seats in the state assembly at the time of their swearing in as the chief minister.
With Sabah having two chief ministers, the legal fraternity opined the scenario had somewhat sparked a constitutional crisis.
Some two years after that, following the change in federal government where Pakatan Harapan (PH) collapsed and was replaced by Perikatan Nasional (PN), Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) was formed.
This followed the results of the Sabah state election which itself was triggered by a wave of defections led by Musa. Shafie at the time refused to step down and promptly called for a snap state election.
The result of that saw Warisan losing the election and ousted from the state government with then Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) Sabah joining forces with Barisan Nasional (BN) and a host of other local parties.
BN which at the federal level played second fiddle to Bersatu wanted its man to lead the Sabah government as chief minister, on the premise of Bersatu already having occupied the prime minister position.
This was ignored and to this day, the feeling of discontent has cropped up time and time again as Sabah BN chairman Datuk Seri Bung Mokhtar Radin had to settle for the deputy chief minister’s post.
There are now three major factions in Sabah politics, all of whom pledged their support for the unity federal government — GRS led by Hajiji, BN Sabah led by Bung and the Shafie-led Warisan.
As to how they will co-exist with each other for the foreseeable future is anyone’s guess.
While BN Sabah is in the state government, Warisan which is an ally to the two parties in the federal government is not.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has to intervene and mediate the differences between the parties.
He knows any move to destabilise Sabah would cause a larger impact to the federal government.
The nation amid the economic uncertainties must remain stable politically and have a government that can and will attend to the needs of the people, while at the same time steer its recovery.
Simply put, we cannot afford another political crisis. The people are jaded; they are tired and most definitely fed-up with schemes that would undo the stability in the state.
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.
