DUIT minyak (money for petrol) may triumph over sentiments such as the “Solo” or “Sabah for Sabahans” push in the state’s elections. A party or candidate can literally run out of petrol to fuel campaign walkabouts, meaning the message might not reach rural voters in state seats as large as the whole of Kelantan.
There is also the matter of duit tambang (money for transport).
In rural areas like Bengkoka in northern Sabah, voters face drastically different challenges than those in, say, Subang Jaya in Selangor when exercising their democratic right. While Subang Jaya residents generally own cars or have access to public transport and can get to nearby polling stations easily, many Bengkoka voters are poor and live in remote areas.
There’s no public transport available, and polling stations can be 20km to 40km from their homes. The voters need the candidate to atur (arrange) for their transportation. The politician must rent pickup trucks to transport them to the voting centre.
These voters will also require duit tambang to compensate them for time away from the kebun (orchard) or sea from which they eke a living.
If duit tambang is not provided, it can be costly for a politician.
A political operative for a candidate in a parliamentary seat north of Sabah recounted a telling incident on the eve of polling in the 2022 General Election: A ketua (head) representing 200 voters called him, stating they needed “fuel” to mobilise voters. The operative rushed to the kampung to settle the matter, but the candidate was unable to deliver the funds because the money had fallen into the wrong hands.
Money falling into the wrong hands can be a big problem.
A politician in a parliamentary seat, also located in north Sabah, won because he had a better system (using trustworthy youths) in place to distribute money to voters than his rival. The rival politician had trusted his seasoned political aides who proved to be too experienced – they “knew better” than to deliver the funds and instead pocketed the money themselves.
A similar situation occurred in a constituency on the east coast of Sabah during the 2018 state elections. A godfather of Sabah politics had to rely on a set of six politicians to deliver the funds, as his trusted aides had either died or retired. The money did not trickle down to the voters, and those who betrayed the politician were dubbed Enam Jahanam (the Six Traitors).
There is also the constant burden of daily petty cash spending.
A politician defending his semi-urban seat in a town in northern Sabah highlighted the challenge posed by the long pre-campaign period: 40 days between dissolution of the state legislature (Oct 6) and nomination day (Nov 15). He estimated he would be spending an average of RM5,000 a day on small-scale activities, such as meeting constituents and transferring money to voters who request assistance for medical emergencies, deaths (he sometimes wonders if someone really died), or car repairs.
“If you calculate RM5,000 times 40 days, that is RM200,000 – and that’s before nomination day,” he said. “Imagine how much money I have to spend on the 14 days of campaigning?”
He then turned the lens on his former party, which he won the seat for in 2020, questioning the vast financial disparity: “How is Party X paying for its president’s daily activities leading up to nomination day? Just say RM50,000 for an event, times 40 days, that’s RM2mil. Where does he get that money?”
A candidate must have a minimum of half a million ringgit to contest. Not all of them are from a party or coalition that has a war chest of, say, from RM500,000 to RM3mil per candidate. Some candidates I personally know have sold property (houses or land), and I’m sure some will eventually be forced to borrow from Ah Long (illegal moneylenders) to fund their campaign.
Note that half a million is the bare minimum. If you are unlucky, you will face a warlord with a war chest of RM5mil to RM10mil.
Last week, I was in a town in the interior of Sabah. I spoke to a potential candidate for an opposition party in the seat, which is likely the most expensive in Sabah. The mode of transportation in the constituency is by boat, and the voters are well accustomed to money politics and know what to expect.
“When you quit your job to be a candidate, could you pay for your car loan, food, and everyday expenses?” I asked him.
“Yes, as I have a kebun,” he said.
“How much personal money can you raise?” I asked.
“RM50,000,” he said.
“How much money can your party give you?” I asked.
“The ketua bahagian [division chief] has promised RM200,000,” he said.
Consider this: What if the ketua bahagian only gives the candidate half, meaning, with his RM50,000 and RM100,000, he will only have RM150,000. By nomination day, he will probably have spent that amount. So how is he going to pay duit tambang for his jentera to move during campaigning, I wondered. He’s also facing an incumbent who is loaded – who will probably carpet bomb the voters in his constituency with money.
I don’t rate the potential candidate’s chances very highly....
“The last two nights before polling are important,” a seasoned political operative told me.
However, that may not hold true in most seats nowadays. The voters are wise now; they can take money from someone they don’t like and vote for someone else. One MP is hoping for this in facing his arch rival, an incumbent in an east coast seat.
“Y will give RM1,000 a voter. I’ve told the voters to take it and give me their votes,” he said.
In the Sabah elections, which will win: duit or sentiment? It all depends on the specific seats. Some parties will win simply because they have the duit minyak to last the full 14-day campaign period while the engine of sentiment stalls.
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