By Datuk Teddy Chin
THERE is only two weeks left before nomination.
As the date gets nearer, the excitement and anticipation also grow, culminating on Nov 15. D-day is of course Nov 29.
People who are fond of speculating or spreading rumours and falsehood will also have a field day between now and then.
As the late Tan Sri P. Ramlee said in his movie “Nujum Pak Belalang”.
The countdown has begun.
Until then, Yours Truly can only guess or speculate himself.
There is still a lot to write about until D-day. For today, my angle is “Family Business”, where siblings may be involved directly or indirectly in the election.
Let’s start from the Interior, centering around its “capital” Keningau.
This Interior “capital” is bordered by Tambunan in the north and Tenom in the South and sidewards is Nabawan which leads to Pensiangan which borders Indonesia.
People in these two countries simply visit each other by using the river starting from Pagalungan.
Keningau (P.180) is the name of the Parliamentary Constituency and administratively it consists of the Districts of Keningau and Tambunan.
As Tambunan is not a parliamentary seat by itself, therefore the name of its State constituency is Tambunan (N.39).
Otherwise, as far as possible the name of the parliamentary constituency would follow the name of the district, according to the Election Commission.
In between Tambunan and Keningau, there are two other State constituencies, namely Bingkor (N.40) and Liawan (N.41). Bingkor includes Keningau Town itself where there are two Voting Districts (Daerah Mengundi) -Keningau Station and Keningau Bandar.
The Voting Stations or Polling Centers for Keningau Town are at SMK Keningau II and SMK St Francis Xavier.
Towards the north, Bingkor starts from Ranggon and Apin-Apin which borders Tambunan.
In between you have Bingkor, the village or sub-urban centre which gives the constituency its name.
Liawan includes the villages in between and surrounding Bingkor and Keningau town.
It also includes parts of Keningau and its Polling Stations include the Keningau Town Government Primary School.
In other words, both Liawan and Bingkor can claim that they are parts of Keningau.
The best known case involved Jeffrey (left) ending Pairin’s political career in the last election.
The Hoguan Siou quit politics within six months of losing his undefeated Tambunan seat simce 1976 to Jeffrey.
The incumbent Assemblyman for Bingkor is Datuk Robert Tawik, also known as Nordin He is an Assistant Minister.
It is believed that he is calling it a day due to his health which was partly why he was absent when the five Star Assemblymen pledged their support to remain in GRS after Star president Datuk Dr Jefffrey Kitingan pulled the party out of the coalition.
If Robert were to defend his seat, he and the other four former Star Assemblymen would be standing on GRS ticket as Direct GRS members, similar to the four GRS MPs.
If he doesn’t, then a replacement GRS candidate would have to be found.
That won’t be a problem as his son Rafie, 38, is a ready-made candidate.
Rafie, a Keningau District Councillor and with a tourism background, is a youth leader of GRS both in Keningau and the State-level.
He has been with GRS since Day 1 and before that a youth leader in Bersatu when it was helmed by Hajiji.
The interesting thing is that even when Robert was a Star leader cum Assistant Minister, Rafie has all the while been in a different party than his father; first Bersatu then PGRS.
That didn’t seem to be a problem with Robert as both are under GRS and Rafie was well-liked both in Bersatu and PGRS.
Now that Robert is officially with GRS as a Direct Member, it’s all is well that ends well for the father-and-son team. PGRS also seems to have no problem with Rafie taking over the candidacy from the father, I understand.
But that is not the end of the story. Rafie has a younger brother Razzidin who was a Star youth leader in his father’s party Star.
Razzidin obviously has not joined his father in leaving Star.
In fact, he has just been named as the Star candidate for Bingkor as announced by Dr Jeffery.
Supposing both Rafie and Razzidin both end up as candidates in Bingkor, it will indeed be a clash of two siblings.
It remains interesting to see how the father will react to this.
But whichever brother wins, it is still Robert’s son, He has an ‘insurance’,” commented another on a lighter note.
Yet another analyst pointed out that sibling challenging each other is nothing new in Sabah politics, adding:
“Didn’t Dr Jeffrey challenge his brother Pairin and defeat him which caused the former Tambunan Assemblyman’s retirement from politics?”
Jeffery has denied that he was the cause of Pairin’s leaving politics or. to put it bluntly, “Downfall”.
After all, the Huguan Siou was the Tambunan Assemblyman since 1976 and CM for 9 years, only to be defeated by his own brother more than four decades later.
Over in Liawan, incumbent Datuk Annuar Ayub is expected to be challenged by his cousin Nik Mohd Nadzri who is Umno Keningau chief.
Nik Mohd has been with Umno for a long time and began his political career as Keningau Umno Youth chief.
When some former Keningau Umno leaders including Sairin Karno jumped to Bersatu, Nik stayed put.
His loyalty to the party has earned him a place as a potential candidate.
As if that is not confusing enough, Annuar’s brother Ishak is said to be a potential candidate representing Star in Liawan.
Ishak didn’t follow his brother’s footsteps in quitting Star. Dr Jeffrey sure know how to pit siblings against one another, said an analyst.
Both Annuar and Ishak are sons of Datuk Ayub, former Kinabalu Sabah Times chairman.
During Berjaya time, Ayub was elected as Berjaya Assemblyman for Bingkor in 1976 and subsequently made an Assistant Minister.
He was later promoted as full Minister and was seen as one of then CM Harris’ ‘Ma Cai.
Over at the neighbouring parliamentary constituency of Pensiangan, you have the three state constituencies of Nabawan, Tulid and Sook.
The anomaly is that while Nabawan is administratively under the Nabawan district as its name suggests, Tulid and Sook are under the Keningau district.
A bit confusing.
The Assemblyman for Sook is Youth & Sports Minister Datuk Ellron Alfred Angin.
Sook has been a Sub-District of Keningau and Ellron has been fighting hard to get it upgraded to a full district.
I think he succeeded recently. He is after all, a Minister.
Ellron was an athlete in his younger days, representing Sabah at national events.
The “sportsman” Minister is expected to defend his Sook seat as he has not said anything about stepping down.
He is one of the five former Star Assemblymen who did not join Dr Jeffery in quitting GRS.
This was despite he being Jeffery’s second man as Star deputy president and is seen as Jeffery’s confidante and second in command and possible successor.
“There is no such thing as blind loyalty in politics, otherwise the political history of Sabah would have been different” someone commented.
In the 2018 state election, Ellron was one of the only two Star Assemblymen elected; the other being Dr Jeffery.
The duo became kingmakers as whichever party they supported, that party would be the government.
They went for BN and Jeffery was made Minister of Agriculture and Ellron Assistant Minister.
But things changed overnight when Upko led by Tangau switched their loyalty to Warisan, an act described as stabbing BN in the back..Tangau became a Minister and the rest is history.
The incumbent Assemblyman over at neighbouring Tulid is Assistant Minister Datuk Flovia of Star who is also staying put in GRS.
The Star candidate challenging her is expected to be Ellron’s son, Jordan Jude, an up-and-coming youth leader.
Jordan heads Star’s Youth Movement while Tawik’s son Razzidin is his deputy.
Indeed, it’s “Family Business”. But just like Razzidin, Jordan is not following his father’s footsteps in leaving Star. Despite not holding any government position, Jordan is not to be taken lightly as Star candidate.
Earlier this year he even donated Smart TVs to all the schools in Tulid.
That speaks for itself. He obviously has been doing his work.
Whether one of Tawik’s sons and Ellron’s son would become a YB after Nov 29, remains to be seen. May the best man win.
Youthful appeal as now 18 years old can vote.
Over at Inanam in the West Coast and part of greater Kota Kinabalu City, another “Family Affair” is brewing up.
By now it is common knowledge that the daughter of former SAPP deputy president and former Sepanggar (which includes Inanam) MP Datuk Eric Majimbun has joined Warisan.
Eric retired from active politics a few years ago.
Edna Majimbun was among the first, if not the first, woman to be made a District Chief (Ketua Daerah) of Kota Kinabalu centering in Inanam.
A DC has a few Native Chiefs (Ketua Anak Negeri) below her who are assisted by a few more Deputies (Wakil KAN).
Below them there are many Village Chiefs (Ketua Kampung), known as Orang Tua in the old days under the British.
The word Wakil instead of Timbalan or Penolong is borrowed from Indonesia where Wakil means Deputy or Vice.
For example, the Vice-President of Indonesia is Wakil Bapak Presiden.
The DC heads the Native Court in a district. She is the equivalent of the District Officer (DO or Pegawai Daerah) who looks after the district administratively.
There may be more than one DC in a district, depending on the number of state constituencies though not necessarily so.
If there are a few state constituencies in a district, each YB would try his best to have a DC appointed for his constituency.
Some succeed. Some don’t. Normally there won’t be more than two DCs.
Otherwise, it defeats the purpose of the title DC.
In fact, over the years there had been proposals to have only one DC in each district to reflect its title.
But politically this is not possible.
For example, in a district where they are almost equal number of non-Muslim KDM and Muslim Bumis, nobody would give in.
So the solution is have one each representing the Muslim and non-Muslims.
Edna is not the first Majimbun to be a DC.
Her grandfather OKK Majimbun Majangkin even during post-Indepedence days was already a DC.
The late Majimbun started as a Native Chief (NC) during British time.
If I am not mistaken, her father Eric was once also a DC, followed by her uncle Datuk William Majimbon who recently followed her footsteps in joining Warisan.
Eric took over from his brother John who died in office. It’s in the blood to be a Native or District Chief.
In short, the DC is a very powerful and respected post. A DC is also known as OKK (Orang Kaya-Kaya), a legacy of the British as those days a DC or even NC is expected to be well-to-do, have properties including buffaloes and probably more than one wife.
In recent years, the State Government has slowly done away with the title OKK.
But old habits die hard. What more DC, even a NC is addressed by villagers as OKK (Orang Kaya for short) out of respect.
Those who are called OKK have no complains also even if they are just NCs.
I can still remember during Usno time in the late 60s even just a WKAN was addressed as Orang Kaya (literally Rich Person) in Kiulu by villagers. What more NC? What more DC?
William was a senior PBS leader especially in Inanam for a long time and had stood for PBS in elections, though unsuccessful.
After handing over the post of DC to his niece, William became the PPM (Community Development Leader) of Inanam, a post sought-after by would-be YBs as it has something to do development projects.
Rumours have it that William quit PBS because he was unhappy that the party did not join Star in leaving GRS.
But if that is the case, then he should have joined Star.
Why Warisan?
Possible that he was influenced by his niece.
“Since he is unlikely to be PBS candidate for Inanam again, may as well support the niece,” claimed a source who asked not to be named.
That is not the end of the story though.
Edna’s brother, Shone, is expected to be an Independent candidate in Inanam. But he is not an ordinary Independent candidate.
He will be part of the what is known as the Gelombang Hitam (Black Movement) headed by Kudat MP Weldon Bahanda.
Whether this Movement will make any impact remains to be seen.
This Independent Movements or Groupings is not new in Sabah elections. In previous elections also got. But none succeeded.
But then this is Weldon, who stood as an Independent in Kudat in 2022 and won as an MP. We wait and see.
Who said Independents cannot win? In 2020, three Independent candidates won and they subsequently joined Bersatu (later PGRS).
In 1967, the sitting Chief Minister Tan Sri Peter Lo was defeated by an Independent, Datuk Yap Pak Leong.
So, Sabahans, buy your pop corns and get ready your coffee on Nov 29 night.
I normally have coffee and peanuts in previous elections, sitting on the sofa in front of TV, handphone ready in hand.
There are always people who volunteer to give you election results, as if you don’t have TV or social media.
Some people also like to look as if that they are the first to know everything. Human nature. Thanks though.
Good luck to all who contest. May the best man win. – Daily Express
The views expressed here are the views of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of talantang.com
