A year on, surprising stability in Sabah’s ruling coalition
KOTA KINABALU: Analysts generally agree that the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) government did not achieve anything outstanding in terms of its public policy during its year in power, as it was more about keeping the coalition intact.
Political scientist Wong Chin Huat says it came as a surprise to him to see that GRS was more stable than first expected, and had remained intact despite Umno withdrawing its support from the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government led by former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin.
“Even when (Sabah Umno chief) Bung Moktar Radin himself became one of Umno’s ‘anti-Muhyiddin 15’, he did not threaten to bring down the Bersatu-led Sabah government,” he told FMT.
“The resilience suggests that power and incumbent advantages are a powerful glue for political partnership, at least in Sabah.”
Bung content to be No 2?
Oh Ei Sun, senior fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, said after an initial tussle for the chief minister’s seat following last year’s state election, Bung seemed content to remain as eventual chief minister Hajiji Noor’s deputy.
“In fact, he repeatedly threw his support for Hajiji’s government despite the change of federal leadership and Sabah Umno having more seats than Bersatu,” he said.
Before the Sept 26 Sabah election, GRS’ opponents as well as political observers had raised doubts over whether the loose coalition made up of PN, Barisan Nasional (BN) and Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) would be able to work together.
This is mainly due to the coalition failing to agree on the candidate for the chief minister’s seat.
But even after agreeing on Hajiji to helm the seat, Bung was reportedly unhappy over the distribution of posts to BN, which helped GRS attain a slim majority win of 38 seats in the state polls.
Of the 38 seats won by GRS, 17 were secured by PN, 14 by BN and seven by PBS. Warisan Plus won 29 seats while its allies PKR won two and Upko one. The three remaining seats went to independent candidates but they later declared themselves as GRS friendly.
GRS is made up of Umno, PBRS, MCA and MIC from BN, Bersatu, STAR, SAPP and PAS from PN, and PBS.
Short-term focus
University of Nottingham Malaysia political analyst Bridget Welsh said GRS had a short term focus on winning support rather than medium and longer term ones to strengthen the foundation for the state.
She believed that GRS is among the best state governments in handling the Covid-19 pandemic from a health standpoint, even as it has faced serious deficits in health infrastructure.
Secondly, she said GRS has used its leverage to negotiate with Putrajaya, winning additional revenue.
“However, the areas for improvement are in laying out a holistic vision for development and economic recovery for the state, as well as translating negotiations at the elite level to realities of those ordinary citizens facing hardship every day.
“The state government has spent millions from their reserves but the effects on the people and improvements from the spending are not yet evident,” Welsh said.
She also suggested the performances of those in power across the pond may influence how the people view the Sabah government, saying “it is hard to separate GRS from poor federal management”.
Failure on federal commitment
However, Wong said Sabah’s vaccination rate had been slow, compared to its neighbour, Sarawak, and was the GRS coalition’s lowest point, as seen from afar.
“It suggests the GRS government’s inability to extract the federal government’s commitment towards Sabah despite having a chief minister from the previous prime minister’s party,” he said.
Universiti Malaysia Sabah senior lecturer Lee Kuok Tiung believed that despite the many challenges including the political unrest in the peninsula, GRS parties did well to gel together.
He said this was evidenced by the nine GRS component parties signing an agreement in January to strengthen the coalition.
He also said the quick introduction of the Sabah Maju Jaya development plan by GRS would be viewed positively by the people, although the challenge would be on the implementation.
“But for the future, GRS should seriously consider registering the coalition as what Gabungan Parti Sarawak has done,” he said. - FMT
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