By C C Pung
Justice of Peace
I always held the view that by its nature and purpose, politics is a business of alliance.
What the hell makes any one party thinks it is good enough on its own?
The make-up of our electorate, the diverse priorities of communities big and small, the subtle nuances between these communities unique to Sabah.
It is counter-intuitive and even self-destructive for parties to declare they’re ‘going solo’ in the upcoming Sabah elections.
The main contenders – the ruling GRS and the main opposition Warisan, have declared their intentions of going alone.
While I supposed they both knew that ‘going solo’ is more posturing than strategy, I’m surprised at the total lack of some explaining to pacify a Sabah electorate marked by deepening segregation and a desire for oneness.
This is what I perceived from the recent wave of emotional rallies ‘Justice for Zara Qairina’.
There’s widespread, unanticipated discontent about the faltering economy, tempered justice, communities growing apart (especially in Sabah where inter-community unity and acceptance were always high and taken for granted) and the general societal malaise not helped at all by shallow, unthinking philosophising and pontificating by disgraced and less-than-qualified politicians.
There’s widespread disenchantment with the Federal govt in Putrajaya.
The intense anti-KL. sentiments of the 80s are being rekindled, helped by characters like a certain tudung-wrapped Nurul Izzah (her only credential is being a certain big shot’s daughter) telling she pitied Sabah and was ‘committed’ to us.
I’m thinking ‘do I even know you?’ Are you sure your plane landed at the right city in Malaysia?
Nurul’s PKR is to work with GRS. How that reconciles with GRS going solo will depend on what some cynics called ‘Sulaman Logic’, attributed to Sulaman Assemblyman and GRS Chief Minister Hajiji Noor.
GRS is a coalition of Sabah and Malayan parties.
In an apparent attempt to appease coalition partners willing to accident to voter pressure to adopt the ‘Sabah for Sabahan’ push, he declared that GRS was going solo.
But does it mean solo with all GRS coalition partners or so in the more parochial sense.
While the questioned lingered, Hajiji bowed to KL, declaring GRS would work with PM Anwar Ibrahim’s PKR because, he pontificated’ that tight relations with the federal govt is crucial to Sabah.
While it is true that a member state’s relation with the federal centre is simply good sense, He overlooked the fact that the sitting federal govt of Anwar is a cat on a hot tin roof, with barely enough sears in Parliament to survive and heavily dependent on a coalition of strange partners.
I believe that the notion of state-federal relations needs to be better articulated and understood.
A columnist recently offered, and accurately so, that the right kind of state-federal ties must not have the undeclared ‘master-servant’ clause.
He meant ‘master’ to be the dominant ‘federal’ and ‘servant’s be a subservient ‘state’.
On fact, any state parties going solo would do themselves a service by stressing on working with Putrajaya with a brand new mi diet of partnership.
Let’s be real. If state-federal ties have been good and genuine, why have we been unable to push for the implementing of all the terms and conditions guaranteed in the Constitution and Malaysia Agreement 1963?
Why are we stuck in perpetual negotiation when the matter on the table is about the fulfillment of contractual obligations?
Malaya’s design and desire over Sabah (perhaps Sarawak also) have always been suspicious.
That Malay ‘thingy’ will stay a barrier.
It sounds parochial and smells a hint of provincialism, but I subscribe to ‘rumah kita, kita jaga’.
Solo is Sabah parties as one.
Sabah for sabahans.
Some dismissed this as divisive even separatisr.
Well, Malaya is proudly called Tanah Melayu, no, I don’t feel one bit included lah.
Editor: The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect that of talantang.com