Is the game afoot in Sabah politics?

Serious debate? Sabah state assembly in session in May last year. Filepic/Bernama

A FRIEND had a revelation when he visited Parliament earlier this week.

“Inside, they were fighting and calling each other names. But once outside, they were laughing among themselves, saying I responded like that because you cucuk [poked] me,” the Sabahan businessman told me during our lunch in Kota Kinabalu on Good Friday.

“Phil, now I know it is all a wayang [show]. We think that they are fighting for us. But it is all about their self-interest.”

He quipped: “We pay expensive tickets to watch clowns perform!”

He then turned serious and said that Sabahans love to blame KL (ie, the Federal Government) for their woes, but it is actually Sabah politicians who let them down.

“At Parliament, Sarawak MPs told me that Sabahans have to get their act together. We have the 40% tax revenue entitlement, whereas Sarawak doesn’t,” he said, referring to the 40% tax revenue entitlement, one of Sabah’s rights under the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).

“The Sarawakian MPs told me that Sabah needed a leader that could firmly unite Sabahan politicians.”

I have many examples of the wayang and clowns.

On a Sabah political WhatsApp group, someone shared a video of an MP from Sabah banging the table in Parliament and demanding the government provide a peruntukan (allocation) to upgrade tanah merah (red mud) roads in his kawasan (parliamentary seat). Some praised the MP, saying that he “berani lawan KL” (dared to fight KL) to get what Sabahans deserve.

I couldn’t resist remarking, “Is the YB berani because he really cares about us, or is he hoping for a road project for his main funder?”

Another time someone shared a video of a vocal MP and commented that he was a potential CM (chief minister) of Sabah as the “politician berani bersuara (dared to speak up)”.

This time, I had more discipline. I bit my tongue.

If I had not, I would have commented that what is seen in the video is a rehearsed performance. The MP had a script to make his party and himself look like they are fighting for Sabah’s rights – and he performed like a method actor.

There are 222 MPs, and it would be unfair to say all of them are only in Parliament for their self-interest. There are a few good men and women who are berjiwa rakyat (have the people’s welfare at heart).

The Sabah businessman agreed. He mentioned a Sabah MP who had gone to jail for his principles.

“When he walks in Parliament, you can see that he commands attention. He is a true leader,” he said.

“He is unlike MP Y, who will try to rub shoulders with other MPs.”

However, I interjected – because I have mild ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) according to the businessman! – people had forgotten that MP’s past heroics.

“Now, most Sabahans see him as part of the system,” I said.

“I know that politician personally. He has not changed,” the businessman replied.

I told him that the public wouldn’t know that. What they see in public only is what they know, I argued.

“Just take your observation of MPs’ wayang in Parliament. The public thinks they are really fighting for them,” I said.

Anyway, in politics, what you see is not always what it seems. Sometimes, the opposite of what the public sees is the truth.

Take a particular foul-mouthed MP who many think is a ruffian. He is actually one of the more honest politicians (is this term an oxymoron?) around.

“Z is honest. When I ask him if a political crisis is brewing, he would say yes or no. If he doesn’t want to tell me, he will avoid the question,” a fellow journalist said during the Good Friday lunch with the Sabah businessman.

We had the lunch meeting because I wanted to determine if a political game was afoot in my home state.

The businessman pointed out that Sabah was inundated with basic infrastructure problems. There are water cuts and power cuts almost daily or weekly, and people call the roads the surface of the moon.

Even politicians in the state government, comprising mostly Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) and Pakatan Harapan assemblymen, are complaining to me.

Besides the big problem of the extremely basic infrastructure in Sabah, they also complain about still awaiting the return of the Federal Territory of Labuan to the state, issuance of the Sabah IC, the long-standing problem of the prevalence of illegal immigrants, and the still unpaid 40% tax revenue entitlement.

Will a new leader emerge from among the GRS leadership?

The Opposition – Parti Warisan and a handful of Umno leaders – is smelling blood. They have embarked on a hate campaign against the state government’s top leader. They seem to have forgotten that they are also part of the Sabah problem (some cynically say, since the formation of Malaysia in 1963). GRS actually inherited the mess they created.

Tomorrow is April 1. Is a political game afoot?

If yes, will it be a gentle push to kick a politician upstairs up a hill? Or will it be the usual Sabah-style jigsaw puzzle politics?