The Will of the People

The last Sabah State Election was held on 09 May 2018. The next election was supposed to take place five years later, i.e. in May 2023. However, the state assembly was recently dissolved, and Sabah will therefore be having another state election, which will take place on 26 September. 

I have had several casual conversations with friends about the political scene in Sabah, and I can't help noticing that among the many points discussed, one that kept emerging was the "will of the people". Most people that I've talked to seemed to believe that Sabahans had rejected BN and its allies based on the result of the 2018 election. 

Is that really the case?

Before I attempt to answer that question, let me share my own views about Sabah politics and how I voted in the last election.

First and foremost, I did not think that the previous government was all that bad. But I was not in favour of the then Chief Minister. Not everything about him was bad though. There were many good things that he has done for Sabah. However, I felt that power can change a person. If one has power for far too long, he is bound to forget that that power was actually given to him by the people. He may behave like the power is his, permanently, and therefore do as he pleases. In the years past, I felt like the then Chief Minister went through a gradual change for the worse, and it was time for Sabah to get a new Chief Minister.

Unfortunately, it is the nature of Malaysian politics that the man at the top is hardly ever challenged. He is usually one with almost absolute power over everybody else. Either nobody would dare to challenge him for the top post, or nobody could win even if he tried, because there are so many things that the man at the top can do to ensure that he remains at the top. Therefore, the only way to remove the man at the top is to bring down the entire government. Which means so many other people in the government, including the good ones, will have to go too.

I voted for the opposition in the last election. But to be honest, I did not know any of the candidates that well. I have not researched on their backgrounds. Neither have I attended any of their talks during campaigning. I voted for them simply because I wanted a new leader, although not necessarily a new government. But since the only way to get a new leader was to bring down the entire government, I had no choice but to vote for the opposition, the candidates regardless!

Now, to come back to the subject of the "will of the people", is it true that Sabahans have rejected the previous government? Somehow the result of the previous election does not support that claim. When the result was announced, the previous government won 29 seats; the opposition won 29 seats; and the Lonely Cowboy had 2 seats. Strictly speaking that was the "will of the people", fifty-fifty.

Just a quick word about the Lonely Cowboy. He has a long history of wanting to be the Ketua; and he jumped from one party to another, and in each party that he landed in, chaos ensued. I'm not sure if those chaos were directly caused by him, or by his supporters, but there was always a trail of destruction. So when the result of the election was announce tied at 29-29, I knew that the Lonely Cowboy would seize the opportunity to become a Ketua. He did become the Deputy Chief Minister and enjoyed the position for a day in office. I'm very happy for him.

Anyway, the 2018 election result tells me that about half of Sabahans still wanted the previous government; and the other half wanted a new government. The rest voted for the Lonely Cowboy (I can't understand why). Therefore, to me, there is no evidence, based on the 2018 election result, that Sabahans as a whole wanted a new government. It should be born in mind that some of the elected representatives that eventually switched alliance, and eventually formed a new government, were actually voted by the people under the previous government's ticket.

Truth be told, what Sabahans really want can't be judged based on the 2018 election. I'm hoping that the result of the coming election will be a clearer picture of the will of the people. I keep an open mind, whoever wins, I can accept the will of the majority.